Busy Final Week for the Princeton Festival on the Horizon

Princeton, NJ -- The Princeton Festival will be as busy as ever during its final week.

Two performances of Benjamin Britten’s dramatic opera “Peter Grimes” remain, Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” will play to packed houses four more times. Baroque orchestra and Bach cantatas will contrast with a sizzling dance troupe, and audiences can attend more free lectures.

Opera-lovers’ attention focused last week on the opening of “Peter Grimes” and audience and critical acclaim followed. A strong cast, chorus, and orchestra in an evocative staging served to bring Britten’s masterpiece to vivid theatrical life.

The story of a loner in a fishing village that turns against him is told by Britten’s layered and powerful music, with the composer’s “Four Sea Interludes” framing the action.

Performances are on Thursday, June 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m. in the McCarter Theatre.
A free lecture “The Enduring Tale of Peter Grimes” by Marianne Grey, Princeton University Art Museum docent, will place Britten and his opera in the context of the changes that WWII brought to the arts in the mid- 20th century.

Her lecture is in the Princeton Public Library at 7 p.m. on June 22.

“A Little Night Music” is a star of the season. Further performances are at 8 p.m. on June 23, 24 and 25, with a matinee on Sunday, June 26, all in Matthews Acting Studio at 185 Nassau Street, Princeton.

Last year was the first performance by the Festival Baroque Orchestra. It was met with sold out audiences eager to hear the lighter sounds of period instruments as the music of the day was heard by 18th century audiences.

It returns by popular demand on Wednesday, June 22 at 7:30 p.m. in Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary. The program begins with a Veracini overture, followed by Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in F minor with the Festival’s artistic director Richard Yang Yuk at the keyboard.

An aria by Vivaldi is sung by soprano Evelyn Nelson, Torelli’s Trumpet Concerto follows, and a concerto by Heinichen completes the program. Juan Carlos Zamudio conducts.

The Baroque Orchestra will be heard again on June 25 in a choral concert of four Bach cantatas.
Eight different conductors, all of whom have been participants in The Princeton Festival’s Conducting Master Class, will lead the Festival Chorus and soloists in different parts of the concert.

They perform with the orchestra at 5 p.m. on June 25 in Miller Chapel, Princeton Theological Seminary.

That same evening at 8 p.m. in the Berlind Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, Festival audiences will have the chance to see the dazzling work of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a troupe that melds classical ballet with contemporary dance in new and creative ways.

These are “super dancers” and their amazing technique has made them dance world favorites with sell out performances for years in New York and around the world.

For more information about the events at the Festival and a link to ticket sales (handled by McCarter Theater), visit www.princetonfestival.org. To purchase tickets by phone, call McCarter Theatre at 609-258-2787.