Guild Provides Education and Community Engagement in Princeton Festival

Princeton, NJ -- The Princeton Festival, which runs from June 4-26, has something for everyone, but it also might be overwhelming for someone who is not an aficionado of the performing arts but who is curious to give them a try (after all, they are here in Princeton) and learn more about them.

Enter the Princeton Festival Guild.

The Guild creates and supports the Festival’s many educational and community engagement programs, all of which are designed to excite, inform, and inspire.

The programs are free and open to the public, and can be divided into two categories: Lectures and Community Engagement Programs.

“The lectures this year focus on the opera, Peter Grimes, as it is the most important of the Festival’s offerings in terms of the number of people involved, the venue, the cost of the production, the number of rehearsals required, etc.,” organizers said on Monday. “While the premiere of Peter Grimes in 1945 was a legendary triumph and it is now part of the standard repertory, learning more about the story, the composer, and the music will enhance everyone’s enjoyment of this 20th century masterpiece.”

Lecture series overview

* “Peter Grimes vs. The Masses” by Timothy Urban, Prof. of Music at Rider University. Prof. Urban will discuss what makes Peter Grimes a masterpiece of contemporary opera. June 4 at 2 p.m., West Windsor Branch of Mercer County Library; June 14 at 7 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library.

* “Peter Grimes and Ellen Orford: Musical Relations—Apocalyptic Outcomes” by Stephen Arthur Allen, Prof. of Music at Rider University and an international authority on Benjamin Britten. Prof. Allen will reveal the specific musical methods through which Britten recounts his own damnation as fulfillment of the Faustian pact—a crucial key in understanding his life’s work.

* “The Enduring Tale of Peter Grimes” by Marianne Grey, Princeton University Art Museum Docent. In 1940 Benjamin Britten was living in California when two different friends referred him to George Crabbe’s poem “The Borough” about life in a Suffolk fishing village near where Britten himself had lived. Apparently taking this as a sign, Britten vowed to write an opera about Crabbe’s tragic character Peter Grimes and to return to his native England to face the impending war. This talk will include literary and artistic examples of how WWII changed the arts of the mid-20th century. June 16 at 7 p.m. at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library, and June 22 at 7 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library.

* “Meeting Peter Grimes” by Scott Burnham, Scheide Professor of Music History at Princeton University. This talk will be a great one for those who are not familiar with Peter Grimes. Professor Burnham will retrace aspects of his own maiden voyage into the world of this opera. In doing so he will illuminate the special qualities of Peter Grimes as he hears them. These will include its sonic dimensions, its dramatic ethos, and how it addresses us as listeners, as opera lovers, and as inhabitants of the modern world. June 18 at 6 p.m. in the Matthews Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center.

Community engagement programs include a Festival preview with artists presenting an overview of music from Peter Grimes and A Little Night Music, as well as a multi-generational opera workshop that combines classroom discussion with a full length performance of the opera. There will also be an art exhibit and sale of paintings inspired by the opera Peter Grimes done by artists affiliated with Trenton Area Soup Kitchen and HomeFront, as well as a conversation with composer Richard Einhorn who wrote the score for the oratorio that accompanies the 1928 silent film “Voices of Light: the Passion of Joan of Arc.” All of these programs are free and open to the public; the opera workshop requires pre-registration.

Community engagement events overview

* Artists Roundtable. Opera artists and production staff discuss the pleasures and perils faced on stage and off as they bring the opera to life. June 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Erdman Center, Princeton Theological Seminary.

* Festival Preview. Singers from the opera and the musical perform scenes from these two productions. June 2 at 7 p.m. Princeton Public Library.

* Opera Workshop: Music That Tells a Story. This 2-hour workshop, facilitated by Dr. Rochelle Ellis, is a fun and interactive orientation to English Opera in general and to the Festival’s production of Peter Grimes in particular. The workshop focuses on the musical features and techniques of the opera, as well as its significance to opera in general, and its relevance to our world today. As a bonus, there will be live performances of arias from the English opera repertoire by young singers from area schools. Attendees will then attend a backstage tour at McCarter’s Matthews Theatre prior to a dress rehearsal performance to gain insight into the behind-the-scenes preparations for staging the production. This workshop is free and open to the public but pre-registration is required. Go to www.princetonfestival.org, click on the Events tab, and then Opera Workshop in the sidebar, and follow the instructions.

For more information and a link to purchase tickets visit www.princetonfestival.org. To purchase tickets by phone, call McCarter Theatre at 609-258-2787.