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Tag: Princeton Festival

Princeton Festival: Storm Large & Carmen Suite

The all-new The Princeton Festival (the first overseen by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra) begins this evening at 7:30, with Storm Large in Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins.” On the second half of the program: Rodion Shchedrin’s colorful arrangement for strings and percussion of Bizet’s most famous music as the “Carmen Suite.”

Rossen Milanov will conduct, in a specially-constructed outdoor 10,000 square foot state-of-the-art performance tent on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden on Route 206 (55 Stockton Street), not far from the Princeton Battle Monument.

The Princeton Festival runs through June 25, with a variety of musical events filling every evening: opera, jazz, cabaret, musical theater, chamber music, classical and Broadway pops, and Baroque music across the street at Trinity Episcopal Church.

Partake of free pre-concert talks, a poetry workshop, an on-site bar, and abundant lawn space at Morven for picnicking prior to the concerts. For a complete schedule, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.

In case you missed it, here’s my preview in last week’s U.S. 1

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/artsandentertainment/the-princeton-festival-is-back-and-bigger/article_0b6d5f26-e15a-11ec-899e-bb3efc959786.html?fbclid=IwAR1RCqnHp8sW5DSsXfPC73DRoGqDeZWtm4RjYGL9X2riEUO1eBPIIsiOlec

The raising of the tent!

Storm Large sings “The Seven Deadly Sins” with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Rodion Shchedrin’s “Carmen Suite”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QysD8zCfGTs

Direct link to tickets for tonight’s concert

https://princetonsymphony.org/performances/seven-deadly-sins/2022-06-10

June 10, 2022
Richard Tang Yuk Leaves Princeton Festival

Richard Tang Yuk is leaving The Princeton Festival.

Tang Yuk is stepping down as executive and artistic director from the festival he founded in 2004.

The festival has made Princeton a June destination for music-lovers seeking quality opera, musical theater, chamber works, Baroque performance, jazz, dance, and multi-media.

Under Tang Yuk’s leadership, the festival has grown in scale from two events and four performances in 2004, to encompass eight events and 22 performances – in addition to 20 free lectures and workshops – in 2019. This year, the festival met the challenges of coronavirus with an ambitious menu of online offerings, mixing new and archival material.

Tang Yuk’s opera performances have earned acclaim in such publications as Opera News and The New York Times. Repertoire at the Princeton Festival has always been an engaging balance of the familiar and the unusual. Tang Yuk and his crackerjack team of technicians have presented uniformly excellent productions of “The Flying Dutchman,” “Peter Grimes,” “Porgy and Bess,” “The Rake’s Progress,” “Nixon in China,” Handel’s “Ariodante,” and a double-bill of “Gianni Schicchi” and Rachmaninoff’s “Francesca da Rimini,” among others.

Gregory Jon Geehern, the festival’s associate conductor and assistant to the artistic director, will step up as acting artistic director.

On September 23 at 6 pm EDT, the Princeton Festival will hold the finals of its annual piano competition, this year to be presented online. The competition will feature participants from around the world. For tickets and information, visit princetonfestival.org.

Sincere best wishes to Richard Tang Yuk. Thank you, Richard, for all that you’ve done!

September 18, 2020
Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini Online

As a kind of addendum to its month of Sunday operas, The Princeton Festival is offering, for today only, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s rarely-heard one-acter “Francesca da Rimini,” streamed as part its special COVID-imposed “Virtually Yours” season.

When “Francesca” was presented at McCarter Theatre in 2012, it was as the first half of a double-bill with Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” – clever programming, since both works have ties to Dante.

As always with the Princeton Festival, the production was well-performed and staged, with, in this instance, evocative medieval sets and costumes. Also, in its vision of Hell, I remember thinking at the time that it was very much of a piece with the famous paintings and illustrations inspired by “Inferno.”

The lighting is a bit dim in this archival video, but it’s still worth watching, and certainly worth hearing. All in all, a good opera to get you in the spirit for St. John’s Eve…

https://princetonfestival.org/digital-event/rachmaninoffs-francesca-da-rimini/

Here’s a preview I wrote for the Trenton Times:

https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2012/06/princeton_festivals_operatic_t.html

The last of this year’s Princeton Festival operas, “The Flying Dutchman,” featuring bass-baritone Mark Delavan, will stream this Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT. For more information and a complete schedule, look online at princetonfestival.org.

June 23, 2020
Princeton Festival Streams Free Music & Opera Online

The Princeton Festival is picking up a good head of steam, heading into its first weekend.

The festival’s 2020 public performance season was canceled over valid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. But in its place, as something of a stay-at-home stop-gap, we now have “Virtually Yours,” a free online series of live and recorded performances of instrumental and vocal music, musical theater, opera, and poetry, along with educational presentations, streamed daily throughout the month of June.

Today, enjoy a recital by organist Matt Middleton, performing on the Aeolian-Skinner organ of Princeton University Chapel. The program was original presented in 2013, and includes works by Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Karg-Elert (after Wagner), Rheinberger, and Reubke.

Then tomorrow, stream the first of four Sunday operas from the Princeton Festival archive. Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” will begin at 1 p.m. EDT.

Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” will follow on June 14; John Adams’ “Nixon in China” will be offered on June 21; and Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” will conclude the series on June 28.

These performances will be streamed ONCE, beginning at 1 PM, SHARP, so be there, or be square! Princeton’s opera productions are uniformly fabulous, so do yourself a favor and definitely check them out.

As a bonus, I am very happy to report that the Festival will be streaming Rachmaninoff’s rarely-seen, one-act opera “Francesca da Rimini” on Tuesday, June 23. This is a souvenir of the 2012 festival and was originally presented on a double-bill with Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.” Again, it’s very much worth seeing.

Of course, the Princeton Festival isn’t just about opera. The New York jazz and swing band Fleur Seule will lend a touch of elegance to a special Latin-themed concert to be presented next Saturday at 5 p.m.; a live musical theater revue will take place on June 20 at 8 p.m.; and a dozen poets from around the world will share some of their work on June 22.

Don’t forget, several of the events will air exclusively on WWFM – The Classical Network, including concerts of the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra and pianist Rachel Cheung 張緯晴. These programs will be broadcast on Fridays at 8 p.m. and can be heard locally at 89.1 FM, or anywhere online at wwfm.org.

All other events stream free from the Princeton Festival website. This week’s past offerings are still available, so you might want to set aside a little time this weekend to binge!

Check out the complete schedule and register for email notifications of upcoming events at princetonfestival.org.

June 6, 2020
Princeton Festival Goes Virtual in June 2020

COVID-19 may have put the kibosh on in-person events, but the Princeton Festival, like life, finds a way.

The June 2020 public performance season has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In its place, the Festival has announced “Virtually Yours,” a free online series of live and recorded performances of instrumental and vocal music, musical theater, opera, and poetry, plus educational presentations, to be streamed every day, from June 1 to June 28.

“This online program maintains the high artistic quality Princeton Festival audiences have come to expect in a variety of genres, both classical and popular,” says Richard Tang Yuk, PF Executive and Artistic Director. “It includes totally new material prepared especially for us by leading artists, plus performances from our recorded archives. We’re confident audiences will find it to be an exciting and engaging series of events.”

Highlights of the “Virtually Yours” online festival will include the following (all times are EDT):

• Videos of four Festival opera productions, each streamed just once on Sundays at 1 pm. The operas are Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (June 7), Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (June 14), the acclaimed 2019 production of John Adams’s Nixon in China June 21), and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (June 28).

• A “Live Musical Theater Review” (Saturday, June 20, 8 pm).

• Broadcasts of 2019 Festival concerts by Concordia Chamber Players, Van Cliburn competition pianist Rachel Cheung, and the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra and Chorus, airing Fridays at 8 pm on WWFM radio, 89.1 FM in the Trenton area and worldwide over The Classical Network at http://www.wwfm.org.

• Videos of musical artists performing from their homes (various days).

• Latin band Fleur Seule on Saturday, June 13.

• A series of podcasts launched each Wednesday on such topics as “Women in Music” and “Costuming Operas and Musicals,” along with interviews with Shai Zohar, pianist, and Sylvia McNair, soprano.

• Twelve renowned poets from the U.S., Japan, and China, reading poems on the theme of women, in a compilation of videos made especially for the Festival. To be released on Monday, June 22.

• An Opera Workshop for people who want to learn more about the art form, starting Tuesday, June 9; and a Musical Workshop for aspiring singers beginning Monday June 15.

• Lectures by prominent experts: Professor Timothy Urban on “Why We Love Opera” (Thursday, June 4) and Professor Stacy Wolf on “Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theater across America” (Thursday, June 18).

A full roster of “Virtually Yours” events, plus periodic updates to the schedule, may be viewed online at https://princetonfestival.org/virtually-yours/.

PHOTOS (counterclockwise from top): Richard Tang Yuk conducts the Princeton Festival Orchestra; pianist Rachel Cheung; Mark Delavan as “The Flying Dutchman;” and Allyson Briggs of Fleur Seule

May 19, 2020

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