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Tag: Peter Grimes

Peter Grimes at Princeton Festival

“Write what you know” is the frequently dispensed advice to young writers. It could just as easily apply to composers, especially if the composer happens to be Benjamin Britten.

Britten was born in a Suffolk fishing port in 1913. The sights and sounds of the sea were in his blood. Powerful musical evocations of the sea pervade his opera, “Peter Grimes,” which was given its premiere in 1945.

Additionally, the burden of adhering to his principles as a conscientious objector during the war and a lifelong struggle to remain to true to himself as a homosexual in an intolerant world likely informed his sympathetic portrayal of a tortured outsider hounded by an insular coastal community.

Britten’s emotionally complex masterpiece is this year’s opera offering from The Princeton Festival. Performances will take place at McCarter Theatre Center’s Matthews Theatre on Saturday at 8 p.m., June 23 at 7:30 p.m., and June 26 at 3 p.m.

Discounting the popular (though lighter-weight) collaborations of W.S. Gilbert & Sir Arthur Sullivan, “Peter Grimes” was the most successful opera to emerge from England in the 250 years since the death of Henry Purcell in 1695. “Grimes” is worlds away from “H.M.S. Pinafore.”

Read more about the opera and the Princeton Festival’s exciting new production in my interview with stage director Steven LaCosse in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/06/classical_music_peter_grimes_a.html

Britten’s masterful “Four Sea Interludes” from “Peter Grimes”:

PHOTO: Britten at Aldeburgh, the Suffolk coastal town where he founded his festival of music and the arts in 1948

June 17, 2016
Sea Music on WPRB: Whitman to Peter Grimes

“Behold, the sea itself.
And on its limitless, heaving breast, the ships…”

So writes Walt Whitman in his poem “A Song for All Seas, All Ships,” from “Sea Drift,” one of the sections of “Leaves of Grass.” Contrast Whitman’s expansive outlook and largeness of spirit with the cruel insularity of Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes,” and you have a sense of the emotional range of this morning’s playlist on WPRB, as we present five hours of music related to the sea.

“Peter Grimes,” this year’s opera offering from The Princeton Festival, opens Saturday night at 8:00 at McCarter Theatre Center, for a run of three performances. We’ll be joined on-air at 10 a.m. today by stage director Steven LaCosse, who will tell us a little bit about the production, which is being built from the ground up and will be wholly unique to the Princeton Festival. We’ll also listen to some excerpts from the opera.

The rest of the morning will capture the many moods of the sea, with evocative music inspired by “Moby Dick,” the poetry of Whitman, the sea god Neptune, RMS Titanic, mermaids, pirates and sea shanties.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor? Listen in from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re always full of creative solutions, on Classic Ross Amico.

June 16, 2016
Peter Grimes at McCarter This Weekend

Ahoy! Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” drops anchor at McCarter Theatre Center this Saturday night at 8:00, for a run of three performances. We’ll be joined on-air at 10:00 this morning by stage director Steven LaCosse, who will tell us all about this exciting new production from The Princeton Festival. We’ll also listen to some excerpts from the opera.

For the rest of the morning, we’ll elaborate on oceanic themes, with music evocative of tall ships, sea shanties, the life aquatic, and the many moods of the sea.

We’ll share the catch of the day until 11:00 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

PHOTO: Britten (center) and Peter Pears (right) prepare for a BBC film of “Peter Grimes”

June 16, 2016
Peter Grimes & Sea Music on WPRB

Shiver me timbers!

Benjamin Britten’s “Peter Grimes” docks at McCarter Theatre Center, beginning Saturday night at 8:00. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, as we anticipate the event, the anchor of this year’s Princeton Festival, with a full manifest of music about the sea.

We’ll have works representing Moby Dick, the poetry of Whitman, the sea god Neptune, RMS Titanic, mermaids, pirates and sea shanties.

At 10:00, we’ll be joined by stage director Steven LaCosse, who will talk a little bit about “Peter Grimes,” his creative process, and his long-standing relationship with The Princeton Festival. We’ll also hear excerpts from the opera.

The oaths will be as salty as the briny sea, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be making my tattoo dance, on Classic Ross Amico.

June 15, 2016
Princeton Festival June Highlights

Just as the 2015-2016 concert season becomes the stuff of memory, The Princeton Festival steps up for its 12th year to keep us contented for the month of June. The festival will present over three weeks of performances, lectures, previews and special events, beginning on June 1.

Highlights will include three performances of Benjamin Britten’s opera, “Peter Grimes,” ten of Stephen Sondheim’s waltz musical “A Little Night Music,” a screening of the Carl Theodor Dreyer film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” with live accompaniment by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and an appearance by Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.

I try to encompass what I can in today’s article in the Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/classical_music_princeton_fest_2.html

PHOTOS: (Top) Princeton Festival artistic director Richard Tang Yuk rehearses the opera orchestra; (left to right) Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and “The Passion of Joan of Arc”

May 27, 2016

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