Princeton Festival kicks off season on June 3

BalletX Credo
BalletX performs Credo. Photo: Princeton Festival.

The Princeton Festival kicks off its 13th season on June 3.  This season the festival will feature a broad range of offerings, from Baroque concerts played on period instruments to contemporary ballet to a concert of music from Disney movies.

“This is truly a season for all tastes and preferences, featuring some of the most talented performers in America,” said Richard Tang Yuk, the Festival’s general and artistic director. “Lovers of Broadway musicals, opera fans, jazz aficionados, classical and popular music listeners, dance buffs– there’s an event for each of them. We’re proud to be called Central Jersey’s premier performing arts festival, and we believe this lineup of events is our best yet.”

The season opens with a performance of music by Beethoven, Strauss, and Kernis by the renowned Concordia Chamber Players.

Two film-related events follow. A June 4 screening of the hit 2012 film “Quartet,” starring Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay, is part of a program that includes a panel discussion of “Opera and the Movies.” The event concludes with live performances of opera arias by Festival artists. On June 9 the Princeton Festival Pops Orchestra will play popular songs from Walt Disney movies while the appropriate scenes are projected on a big screen.

Both of this year’s musical stage performances address humankind’s response to a troubled world, organizers said. June 10 sees the first of 11 performances of “Man of La Mancha,” the Broadway musical about one person’s quest to right the wrongs he sees around him. Ludwig van Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio,” written in praise of personal liberty and the defeat of tyranny, will be performed June 18 and June 25.

On June 17. principal players from the Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra will give an afternoon chamber music concert in the Princeton Abbey. In the evening, the Grammy-winning Peter Martin Trio will perform.

On June 21, the full Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra will play music by Handel, Corelli, and Boyce on period instruments. On the afternoon of June 24, the orchestra will accompany the Festival Chorus in works by Handel, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, and Zelenka.

BalletX, the superstar contemporary ballet company, will make its Festival debut on the evening of June 24, performing pieces choreographed by Matthew Neenan, Trey McIntyre, and R. Colby Damon.

The Princeton Festival will also offer 14 free lectures, workshops, and events this season.

For more information and a link to purchase tickets, visit the Princeton Festival website. To purchase tickets by phone, call McCarter Theatre at 609-258-2787.

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.