Two Shows Open During Second Week of Princeton Festival

The Princeton Festival’s two original productions, Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and Broadway’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” open this week, festival organizers said on Monday.

The musical opens on Friday at 185 Nassau Street, 8 p.m.

The opera opens on Saturday at the McCarter Theatre, 7:30 p.m.

“The Marriage of Figaro” is often described as “perhaps the most perfect opera” or “the most entertaining operatic comedy.”

This musical, comedic and dramatic exploration of emotional and social relationships as played out by 18th century aristocrats and servants will be staged in the McCarter Theatre, which is similar in size to the theatre in which it first opened.

It will be performed by a cast with experience, wit, acting skills, and acclaimed voices, several of whom are on the roster of the MET and all of whom have sung leading roles at opera houses across the country and abroad.

Richard Tang Yuk conducts and Steven LaCosse is the director, the team that has brought past Festival productions such as The Flying Dutchman and Porgy and Bess critical and audience acclaim.

A “Meet the Artists” reception, free with cash bar, follows the performance. Two performances of The Marriage of Figaro follow Saturday’s opening on Sunday, June 21 and June 28, both at 3 p.m.

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” has been described as “hilarious”, “a must see” ever since it opened in New York. In 2005 it won two Tonys and a Drama Desk award and the madcap story of six somewhat wacky six graders engaged in this most important event has brought laughter across the country ever since.

The young, talented cast brings high energy and even a little pathos to the spelling bee competition, and the spontaneous fun increases when they are joined on stage by several “spellers” invited from the audience.

Melissa Firlit is the director and choreographer and Evan Rees the music director.

Real-life competition by young performers will take place on Sunday, June 14 at 3pm in Clark Music Center, Lawrenceville at the finals of the Festival’s Piano Competition for Young Artists. A total of 107 pianists in six age categories have competed for the final awards, playing one selection from pieces listed for their category.

Adjudicators are Mikhail Yanovitsky and J.Y. Song in this event sponsored by Jacobs Music Company.

The Princeton Festival’s lecture series continues with “A Marriage of Music and Mayhem: Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro” with Timothy Urban, Professor of Music at Rider University on Wednesday, June 10 at Princeton Public Library at 7:30 p.m.

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