Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Morven Museum & Garden

Angel Blue Kicks Off Princeton Festival 2024

Last season, when soprano Pretty Yende had to cancel her appearances with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra due to illness, Angel Blue stepped up at the eleventh hour to deliver possibly the finest “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” I have ever heard. With the audience in the palm of her hand, she went on to sustain the spell with a selection of gorgeously-rendered operatic arias, the capstone being an impromptu duet on Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro” with a music student she invited to join her onstage. It was a memorable weekend of performances that sent everyone into the winter nights aglow with warm fuzzies.

This week, Princeton will have another chance to experience Blue’s enchantment when she returns for opening night of The Princeton Festival, this Friday at 8 p.m.

On the program will be arias by Puccini, Verdi, and Gershwin, with music director Rossen Milanov conducting the PSO in additional orchestral works by Puccini, Dvořák, Delius, and zarzuela master Ruperto Chapí.

The festival, continuing through June 22, will include concerts that embrace a wide variety of genres. As always, the centerpiece will be opera, with this year three fully-staged performances of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” (June 14, 16 & 18).

But there will also be a Tina Turner tribute show (including Broadway star and “American Idol” finalist LaKisha Jones, June 8 ), a Latin American family program (with Sonia De Los Santos and her band, June 9), chamber music by Shostakovich, Beethoven, and Reena Esmail (with the Abeo Quartet, June 13), dance with American Repertory Ballet (with choreography by Arthur Mitchell and Meredith Raine and music by Philip Glass, Grieg, Miranda Scripp, and Sibelius, June 15), Black choral music (with Capital Singers of Trenton and friends, directed by Westminster Choir College’s Vinroy D. Brown, Jr., June 19), Baroque favorites, including a selection of “Brandenburg Concertos” (with the ensemble The Sebastians, June 20), genre-bending classical crossover (with the trio Empire Wild, June 21), and cabaret (with Tony Award winning artist, for his tour de force performance in Broadway’s “Tootsie,” Santino Fontana, June 22).

Most of the concerts, including opening night with Angel Blue, will be presented in the performance pavilion on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden at 55 Stockton St. (a.k.a. Route 202). Concerts featuring the Abeo Quartet and The Sebastians will be held across the road at Trinity Church Princeton (technically 33 Mercer St.).

For more information and additional events, including pre-performance talks, the Juneteenth celebration, an art exhibit opening, and Yoga in the Garden, visit the festival website at princetonsymphony.org/festival.

Clockwise from upper left: Angel Blue, Sonia De Los Santos, Santino Fontana, and Empire Wild

June 4, 2024
Grandfather Clock Song NJ Exhibit & History

Did you know that the term “grandfather clock” entered the language as a result of a song by Henry Clay Work?

This is something I learned on a visit to the exhibition “Striking Beauty: New Jersey Tall Case Clocks, 1730-1830,” now on display at Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton. I visited the show over the summer, but the installation will be in place through February 18, 2024.

The reason I am thinking of it now is that today is Work’s birthday anniversary. Work lived from 1832 to 1884. Although he was born and died in Connecticut, in his 20s, he labored as a printer, setting type in Chicago. There he composed in his head, against a background of noisy machinery. He conceived his greatest songs during the American Civil War, achieving a popularity even greater than Stephen Foster’s. “My Grandfather’s Clock,” published in 1876, sold over a million copies of sheet music, and popularized the term “grandfather clock” to describe a longcase clock.

Although his heart was in the right place, as a dyed-in-wool abolitionist (the family home was a stop on the Underground Railroad and his father was imprisoned for assisting runaway slaves), in common with other songwriters of his day, Work composed a number of songs that were used in minstrel shows. He also appropriated what he perceived as Irish dialect. It was a thing. People, like history, are complex.

There’s certainly a lot of history on display in the Morven exhibit, billed as “the most comprehensive look ever given to the ingenious work of New Jersey clock makers.” No less than 50 tall case clocks are on view in five galleries.

The former New Jersey Governor’s Mansion was originally built by Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

If you’re looking for something to do on a lovely autumn weekend, definitely consider checking it out. When the clocks begin to chime, it is quite the time machine indeed!

https://www.morven.org/

Henry Clay Work, “Grandfather’s Clock”

October 1, 2023
Princeton Festival Highlights & Juneteenth Celebration

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/

June 19, 2023
See “The Barber of Seville” at Princeton Festival

Think you don’t know “The Barber of Seville?” Rossini’s comic opera is one of the most famous of all time. Even if you’ve never seen it, it’s been referenced and parodied in countless movies, cartoons, television shows, and commercials. I’ve included ten such examples at the bottom of this post.

You’ll have three chances to laugh, delight, and walk out humming its hit tunes, tonight, Sunday, and Tuesday at The Princeton Festival, now taking place on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden, at 55 Stockton Street/Route 206.

The opera will be presented in an all-new production, stage-directed by James Marvel, with fun, Cubist set designs by Blair Mielnik suggesting the timeless, madcap nature of the story. Rossen Milanov will conduct the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Andrew Garland will portray the resourceful barber and jack-of-all-trades, Nicholas Nestorak the lovestruck and resolute Almaviva, and Kelly Guerra the beautiful and game Rosina, with Steven Condy providing the requisite impediment to young love as the slow-witted and lascivious Dr. Bartolo. Filling out the cast will be Festival veterans Eric Delagrange and Cody Müller, along with Kaitlyn Costello-Fain and the Festival Opera Chorus. Elaborate disguises, conspiracy, and close shaves inform the action, set to Rossini’s spritely and dynamic score.

Tonight’s presentation, under the festival pavilion, will begin at 7:00. The opera will be repeated on Sunday at 4 p.m. and Tuesday at 7 p.m. A pre-concert talk, “The Funny Thing About Figaro,” will be offered by Dr. Timothy Urban at Morven’s Stockton Education Center at 3:00, prior to the Sunday performance.

The Princeton Festival will continue through June 25. Yet to come: a program for string quartet and interpretive dance featuring the Attacca Quartet and members of American Repertory Ballet; a recital of songs by Black composers sung by Metropolitan Opera singer Will Liverman; a “Mazel Tov Cocktail Party” with klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer and friends; Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” performed by The Sebastians (across the street at Trinity Church Princeton); Andrew Lippa’s musical theater oratorio “I Am Harvey Milk;” and a vaudeville-inspired family concert including “Peter and the Wolf” with Michael Boudewyns of Really Inventive Stuff.

Ancillary events, including talks, a film screening, an art installation, Yoga in the Garden sessions, and kid-friendly activities, will also be offered.

The festival’s state-of-the-art pavilion is 11,000 square-feet, clear-span (no poles or obstructed views), and open-sided, allowing for easy access to refreshments, ample picnicking opportunities, a garden stroll, or the simple enjoyment of a late-spring/early-summer evening.

The Princeton Festival is the premier summer arts program of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. For more information, tickets, and a complete schedule, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.

Did you know:

Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” (1816) is frequently confused with Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” (1786). Both operas were based on comedies by the French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, which were considered subversive, even politically incendiary, when they were written in the last quarter of the 18th century, a time of roiling social unrest, as they enact a kind of class warfare, with wily servants getting over on their aristocratic masters. “The Marriage of Figaro” was particularly edgy, facing challenges from censors and causing many a noble’s head to rest uneasily on his satin pillow. A third play, called “The Guilty Mother,” followed in 1791, by which time the Ancien Régime had already been abolished and the French Revolution was in full swing.

All the principal characters of Rossini’s opera appear in Mozart’s. Though Mozart’s was written first – 30 years earlier, in fact – it’s actually based on the second of Beaumarchais’ “Figaro” plays, so the action takes place later, AFTER that of “The Barber of Seville.” Got it?

Other operas to include characters from Beaumarchais’ trilogy include Jules Massenet’s “Chérubin,” Darius Milhaud’s “La mère coupable,” and John Corigliano’s “The Ghosts of Versailles.” There was also an earlier opera based on “The Barber of Seville,” from 1782, by Giovanni Paisiello.

But Rossini’s is far and away the most famous musical adaptation of Beaumarchais’ “Barber,” and now regarded as his quintessential work. It is quicksilver, farcical, and often very silly – the archetypal opera buffa.

It also contains some of the most recognizable and oft-referenced music in all of opera. Figaro’s “Largo al factotum” (Fi-ga-ro! Fi-ga-ro!), Rosina’s “Una voce poco fa,” and of course the overture are most frequently encountered. Here are ten instances of their use and abuse:

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (1980)

Bugs Bunny, “Rabbit of Seville” (1950)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Sro9rMofg

Fellini’s “8 ½” (1963)

“Breaking Away” (1979)

“Prizzi’s Honor” (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za4LPc0JXLU

“Seinfeld” (1993)

“Citizen Kane” (1941), “Una voce poco fa”

“Oscar” (1991), “Largo al factotum”

“Help!” (1965), “The Barber of Seville” with the Beatles

“Our Gang Follies of 1938,” with Alfalfa and straight razor, but actually no Rossini!

June 16, 2023
Princeton Festival Live Music Guide

Who has a thirst for live music?

Up next on The Princeton Festival, enjoy a tall drink of water (or wine or beer) with The Claremont Trio. Tonight’s program will include works by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Canadian composer Kati Agócs, and Antonin Dvořák. The concert will take place at 7:00 in the performance pavilion at Morven Museum & Garden.

Tomorrow, hilarity and improvisation characterize “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical.” Start thinking of your creative song title now! If selected, it could form the basis for a raucous evening’s entertainment.

On Thursday, Boyd Meets Girl, the husband-and-wife duo for cello and classical guitar, will offer perhaps quieter rewards with its recital across the street at Trinity Church Princeton. Repertoire will range from Bach to Messiaen to Lennon & McCartney.

Back in the performance pavilion, Friday will bring the first of three performances of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” in a production employing Cubist set designs. Rossen Milanov will conduct the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

On Saturday, dancers from American Repertory Ballet will join the Attacca Quartet for expressive interpretations of works by John Adams and Caroline Shaw and some arrangements of Scandinavian folk tunes.

The Princeton Festival will run through June 25, largely on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden at 55 Stockton Street (Route 206).

Boyd Meet Girl and a Baroque concert featuring The Sebastians will be offered across the way at Trinity Church Princeton, at 33 Mercer Street.

The festival’s “big top,” an 11,000 square-foot, clear-span (no poles or obstructed views), open-sided performance pavilion, allows for easy access to refreshments, ample picnicking opportunities, a garden stroll, or the simple enjoyment of a late-spring/early-summer evening.

The Princeton Festival is the premier summer arts program of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. For complete listings and ticket information, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.

And if you haven’t had a chance to take a look at it yet, here’s my preview in the Princeton weekly U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo.

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/eeditions/page-page-12/page_58fa5c3c-6e2a-5848-acb1-58218381fe73.html?fbclid=IwAR1_i3FDAShBuHa48ugoiDnMGJisZCzNIRFnghKMXWFeDm7Hg9IRrVVjzXM

June 13, 2023

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