Are we having fun yet?

I hope you’ve managed to catch some of the live performances at this year’s The Princeton Festival.

So far, we’ve had opportunities to enjoy chamber and instrumental music, contemporary dance, an Aretha Franklin tribute, musical theater/improv (built around audience suggestions, yielding “Love Under the Washington Crossing Monument” ), and of course opera. This year, it’s Rossini’s lighthearted romp, “The Barber of Seville.”

The Princeton Festival enters its final week with an observance of Juneteenth. Grammy Award-winning Metropolitan Opera baritone Will Liverman will present a recital of songs by Black composers, with Kevin Miller at the piano – among them, works by Damien Sneed, Margaret Bonds, and Florence Price. Also featured will be a selection from Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” with which Liverman opened the Met’s 2021-22 season. This fall, Liverman will star in the Met production of Anthony Davis’ “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.”

Liverman’s recital will crown a day of Juneteenth-related events, including a flag-raising hosted by the Municipality of Princeton at 1 Monument Hall, at noon.

At 2:00, a talk by Arts Against Racism founder Rhinold Lamar Ponder will open a free exhibition, “Beyond Freedom,” at Morven Museum & Garden’s Stockton Education Center, located behind the Morven mansion at 55 Stockton Street (Route 206).

Of course, Morven is the nucleus of the Princeton Festival, the premier summer arts program of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, with most of the events held under a massive, state-of-the-art performance pavilion erected on the premises. Arrive early to avail yourself of refreshments, the grounds’ ample picnicking opportunities, a garden stroll, or the simple enjoyment of a late-spring/early-summer evening.

Yet to come: the final madcap performance of “The Barber of Seville” (tomorrow), a “Mazel Tov Cocktail Party” with klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and friends (Wednesday); Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” performed by The Sebastians (Thursday, across the street at Trinity Church, Princeton); Andrew Lippa’s musical theater oratorio “I Am Harvey Milk” (Friday & Saturday); and a vaudeville-inspired family concert including “Peter and the Wolf” with Michael Boudewyns of Really Inventive Stuff (Sunday).

All performances begin at 7:00 p.m., EXCEPT the family concert, which will take place on Sunday at 4:00 p.m. Kid-friendly activities will be offered on the grounds prior to the last event.

On Friday at 4:00 p.m., acclaimed Broadway composer and lyricist Andrew Lippa (“Big Fish,” “The Addams Family”) will speak with young musicians about his process of writing the musical “I Am Harvey Milk” and the tools artists have at their disposal to create social change. The workshop, to be held at Morven’s Stockton Education Center, is free and open to the public.

The Princeton Festival continues through June 25. For complete listings and ticket information, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.

Will Liverman’s opera, “The Factotum,” given its premiere in February, is now available for streaming at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s website.

https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/the-factotum-film/