Having watched the Met stream of “Nixon in China” last night, I have to say, hats off to The Princeton Festival! Mark Morris’ choreography aside, Princeton presented the superior production – more imaginative direction by Steven LaCosse, more engaging set design by Jonathan Dahm Robertson, wittier characterizations by the singers, and a fresher voiced Nixon in Sean Anderson. You guys really nailed it!
Tag: Steven LaCosse
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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
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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”
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