Because of safety concerns regarding the ill-timed thunderstorms that battered the region last night not long before curtain, it was nearly 9:00 before soprano Sondra Radvanovsky took the stage of the performance pavilion at Morven Museum & Garden for the second night of The Princeton Festival. But boy, when she did, did she deliver.
The program was perfectly tailored to suit her voice, with selections by Verdi (“La forza del destino”), Giordano (“André Chénier”), and Puccini (“Tosca” – which she’ll be singing at the Met next season – and an imperious Turandot). Her control was riveting, her dramatic presence hypnotic, and when she was under full sail, she flooded the tent with a magisterial voice that stirred overwhelming emotion.
She was joined by rising tenor Victor Starsky, a Princeton Festival veteran, who sang Cavaradossi in last year’s production of “Tosca” and will return next week as Pinkerton in “Madama Butterfly.” Starsky had his time in the spotlight with “Celeste Aida” and that old standby, “Nessun Dorma.” Nothing sets a crowd wild like a tenor in full voice.
But even more compelling, for me, personally, were his duets with Radvanovsky (from “Un Ballo in maschera” and “Manon Lescaut”), which allowed his passion to bubble over. I was left shaken by their concluding “Vicino a te s’acqueta,” from “André Chénier,” in which the couple anticipates fulfillment of their love in their impending death at the guillotine (“Viva la morte insiem!”) – so much so that, as I was chatting with some people behind me afterward, I nearly broke down.
No doubt there would have been encores, but it was already pushing 11:00. I’m sure a lot of contracted employees are going to be getting overtime.
Rossen Milanov conducted The Princeton Symphony Orchestra, in support of the singers, but also supplied the overtures and interludes by Verdi, Mascagni, and Leoncavallo. It was a late night, so I was thankful for having imbibed a strong cold brew beforehand. Even so, I think it would have been impossible to nod. It was definitely worth sweating it out in the car for an hour, waiting for the thunder and lightning to subside.
Today is the festival’s Community Day, with Yoga in the Garden (to live musical accompaniment) already underway. That will be followed this afternoon by family friendly activities, including an instrument “petting zoo,” a musical story time, a quilting exhibition, “Harriet Powers: American Icon,” with the Princeton Sankofa Stitchers Modern Quilt Guild, and American Repertory Ballet‘s 30-minute “Swan Lake Experience,” an accelerated story of the ballet with audience participation, from 12-3 p.m.
This evening, Milanov and the PSO will return to join the dancers for a program that will feature pas de deux from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and “The Sleeping Beauty,” Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” and a world premiere choreographed to music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw. But especially interesting to me will be a ballet set to Jean Françaix’s Piano Concerto, with Steven Beck the soloist. The event will commence in the performance pavilion on the Morven grounds at 7 p.m.
Morven Museum & Garden is located at 55 Stockton Street (Route 206) in Princeton, NJ.
The Princeton Festival runs through July 21. For tickets and information, visit princetonsymphony.org/festival.
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I didn’t take any pictures last night. I’ll add a more pertinent photo once the Princeton Festival makes one available!
Tag: Puccini
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Stunning Radvanovsky Worth the Wait, After Rain Delay at the Princeton Festival
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June Is Bustin’ Out at the Princeton Festival
It’s June, and the performance pavilion is up at Morven Museum & Garden! Who’s ready to hear some music? Opera, cabaret, Baroque, dance, Great Ladies of Jazz, Time for Three, the Bacon Brothers, Queen Nation, and a pops concert in celebration of America’s 250th birthday – the Princeton Festival will begin on Friday and run through June 21.
Main stage events will be held on the grounds of Morven, at 55 Stockton Street (Route 206), with Baroque concerts held across the way, at Princeton’s Trinity Church (33 Mercer Street).
On opening night, Broadway superstar Sierra Boggess (“The Little Mermaid,” “The Phantom of the Opera”) will perform cabaret-style, with piano, sharing showtunes, songs, and personal anecdotes (Morven, Friday at 7 p.m.).
Then will be a big treat for opera lovers, as world-renowned soprano and Metropolitan Opera star Sondra Radvanovsky will headline a program of moving arias, duets, and orchestral interludes from the Italian repertoire, including works by Puccini, Verdi, Mascagni, and Giordano. For the duets, she’ll be joined by Festival veteran Victor Starsky, who will also perform the showstopper “Nessun Dorma.” The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Rossen Milanov (Morven, Saturday at 8 p.m.).
Sunday will be the Festival’s Community Day, which will include free morning Yoga in the Garden (9 a.m.) and, in the afternoon, family friendly activities, such as an Instrument Petting Zoo, a Musical Story Time, a Quilting Exhibition “Harriet Powers: American Icon,” with the Princeton Sankofa Stitchers Modern Quilt Guild, and American Repertory Ballet‘s 30-minute “Swan Lake Experience,” an accelerated story of the ballet with audience participation (12-3 p.m.).
In the evening, Milanov and the PSO will return in support of the dancers for a program including celebrated pas de deux from Tchaikovsky masterworks (including “Swan Lake”), a ballet set to a neglected gem by Jean Françaix – his Piano Concerto, with Steven Beck the soloist – and a world premiere choreographed to music by Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw (Morven, Sunday at 7 p.m.).
Two Baroque concerts will be offered on weeknights at Trinity Church, with The Sebastians performing a program of Bach cantatas, BWV 140 “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (“Sleepers Awake”) and BWV 80 “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”), alongside the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor (Trinity, next Tuesday at 7 p.m.).
Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” will highlight a program performed by the ensemble Twelfth Night that will also include works by Pietro Locatelli, Arcangelo Corelli, and Francesco Durante (Trinity, next Thursday at 7 p.m.).
This year’s fully-staged opera will be Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.” Soprano Toni Marie Palmertree, who really threw herself into the role (and off Castel Sant’Angelo’s parapet) last year as Tosca – and who recently sang “Butterfly” at the Met – will sing Cio-Cio-San. Victor Starsky, who gave an impassioned performance as Tosca’s lover, Cavarodossi (and, again, will sing with Radvanovksy this Saturday) – will return as Pinkerton. Once again, Milanov will conduct the PSO. The opera will be heard in two performances (Morven, Friday, June 12, at 7 p.m.., and Sunday, June 14, at 4 p.m.).
Impassioned music-making of another sort will rock the pavilion – and you – as musicians of Queen Nation, billed as the undisputed #1 Queen Tribute Band in the United States, declare themselves the champions in iconic Queen ‘70s and ‘80s-era costumes (Morven, Saturday, June 13, at 7 p.m.).
Grammy and Emmy Award-winning ensemble – and Festival favorites – Time for Three will return with another genre-defying program. The trio of Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals), Nicolas “Nick” Kendall (violin, vocals) and Charles Yang (violin, vocals) merge classical, Americana, and singer-songwriter traditions into a singular, remarkable sound. As always, in the spirit of spontaneity, as always, the group will announce its selections from the stage (Morven, Thursday, June 18, at 7 p.m.).
The concluding weekend will be a three-day showcase of American music, in celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial, with additional family events on Sunday. The weekend will be presented in partnership with the Municipality of Princeton.
Great Ladies of Jazz will be a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Ginger Rogers, among others, starring Capathia Jenkins and Aisha de Haas. Lucas Waldin will conduct the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (Morven, Friday, June 19, at 7 p.m.).
A pre-concert talk, “Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement,” will be delivered by Princeton University voice teacher Dr. Rochelle Ellis. Treats will be available to sample from Tipple & Rose, and Morven’s Museum will be open with free admission from 5-7pm in recognition of Juneteenth.
The Bacon Brothers, Emmy-winner composer Michael and A-list actor Kevin (of “Footloose” and “Apollo 13” fame), will play a mix of folk, rock, soul, and country music. Olsson’s Fine Foods will be onsite with Happy Hour Boxes filled with gourmet cheeses and sandwiches. (Morven, Saturday, June 20, at 7 p.m.).
Finally, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra will offer a star-spangled salute with “American Fanfare,” featuring Broadway vocalist Julie Benko (“Funny Girl”). The patriotic program will include works by Aaron Copland, Valerie Coleman, Virgil Thomson, Richard Rodgers, Harold Arlen, and John Philip Sousa. America 250 flags and red, white, and blue pom-poms will be given out to the first 150 to enter the grounds (Morven, Sunday, June 21 at 3 p.m.).
Prior to the concert, free family fun for children of all ages will be available, beginning at 1:00.
Picnic boxes from Jammin’ Crepes may be pre-ordered up to 48 hours before each mainstage Festival performance, except the June 6 Sondra Radvanovsky concert.
Tickets and information are available by phone at (609) 497-0020 and online at princetonsymphony.org/festival. -
Puccini’s Bohemian Christmas
Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La bohème” opens in an artist’s garret on Christmas Eve. After Mimi and Rodolfo meet cute (she knocks on his door looking for a match for her candle), they join their friends on the boisterous streets of Paris for a good old-fashioned Latin Quarter Christmas. This effectively knocks out the first two acts.
By Act III, their love is on the rocks. On a snowy night, Rodolfo confides to the painter Marcello that Mimi is slowly dying of consumption (tuberculosis). He loves her still, but he doesn’t have the money to take care of her, so he is feigning jealousy in an attempt to drive her into the arms of another. Mimi overhears, and apparently agrees to the split, but then the lovers decide it’s too horrible to part in winter. We know it’s just an excuse, though, so that they can stay together until spring.
In Act IV, we have no idea what month it is, but it’s sometime later. Mimi shows up at the garret, and she is not well. The circle of bohemians offer comfort, each in their own way. Earrings are sold for a muff, and an overcoat is hocked for medicine. Left to themselves, Mimi and Rodolfo relive their past happiness, but the reunion is agonizingly brief. Their friends return, only just in time for everyone to dissolve into tears.
Merry Christmas.
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On Puccini’s birthday, here’s a recording of André Kostelanetz (also born on this date) conducting a purely orchestral suite of highlights from “La bohème”:
Mimi’s hands are cold, so Rodolfo goes to work. The old smoothie.
Franco Zeffirelli filmed production of the complete opera, with Adriana Martino turning up the heat in Act II as flirty Musetta. -
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
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Jeff Beck’s Classical Guitar Legacy
As the world mourns the passing of rock guitarist Jeff Beck, whose influential career spanned an eventful 60 years, it’s to be remembered that he also recognized beauty in the music of other genres, often consolidating it with his own style.
Among his 16 Grammy nominations (and eight wins) was a cover of “Nessun dorma,” the standout aria from Puccini’s “Turandot,” recognized as Best Pop Instrumental Performance of 2010. Here it is in concert.
Beck also recorded an arrangement of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
Thanks to “The Guv’nor” for helping to get the word out. Good music is good music. R.I.P.
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