BAROQUE ORCHESTRA OF NEW JERSEY
2013 SUMMER FESTIVAL
WHEN: Sunday, Aug. 4-Sunday, Aug. 11 (Check below for times, places and programs)
WHERE: Dolan Hall, College of Saint Elizabeth, 2 Convent Road, Morristown, and Grace Church, 4 Madison Avenue, Madison
ADMISSION: Tickets for the events at Dolan Hall are priced at $35/$25/$5/Adults/Seniors/Students under 22 with ID. For the chamber music concert and the Wilde, Wild West performance, both at Grace Church, tickets are priced at $20/$15/$/5/Adults/Seniors/Students under 22 with ID. Festival passes for the entire series of events are available for $70.
For further information about tickets and pricing, visit the Orchestra’s web site, www.baroqueorchestra.org, or by calling the office, 973.366.8922; or at the performance the day or evening of the concert.
Area residents have come to expect wonder, excitement and new experiences at the annual Summer Music Festival, sponsored by The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, under the tutelage of Dr. Robert W. Butts, founder, artistic director and conductor.
Highlighting the Festival on both ends of the week will be the opening full Orchestra concert at 7:30 PM, Sunday, Aug. 4, entitled FRESH BREEZES, and at 3 PM, Sunday, Aug. 11, a semi-staged production of Verdi’s beloved and fabled opera, OTELLO, with singers from the Eastern Opera Company of New Jersey, under the direction of Karole Lewis. Conductor is Dr. Butts.
Program selections for the Aug. 4 concert include: Ballet Music from Otello, by Verdi; Chaconne, by Vitali; Maestro Butts’ original composition, Bassoon Concerto, featuring Andrew Pecota, the Orchestra’s principal bassoonist, as soloist; and Haydn’s Symphony #101, The Clock.
Commenting on the overall aspects of the Festival, Maestro Butts said: “I look forward to this, the eighth BONJ Summer Music Festival. Collaborating is always exciting and this summer we return to working with Grace Community Music to present lunchtime keyboard recitals and we begin our collaboration with Eastern Opera Company of New Jersey in celebrating the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi with the Festival’s most ambitious opera undertaking—Otello
I am happy to tie the entire Festival together by opening the week with a rare performance of the Ballet Music from Otello Verdi composed for the 1894 production of his Shakespearean masterpiece in Paris. The music is delightful, but rarely heard and is little known.”
A CHAMBER MUSIC CELEBRATION will be held on Friday, August 9, at 7:30 PM. at Grace Church, 4 Madison Avenue, Madison. Compositions featured on this program include works by Susato (Renaissance Dances); Mozart (Trio in C, DV548); and Schubert (Death and the Maiden Quartet). In addition, there will be brief selections from the Arioso Consorte, an ensemble dedicated to bringing the music of the Baroque and Classical eras to life, featuring Orchestra members Margaret Walker, traverso, and Andrew Pecota, bassoon; as well as Laura Ferraro, traverso, and Ilizabeth Cabrera, viola da gamba.
The evening before, Thursday, Aug. 8, at 7:30 PM, at Grace Church, a raucous, rambling evening is in store for Festival patrons with the presentation of A NIGHT IN THE WILDE, WILD WEST, a cabaret style performance of a new musical, with book by Jewel Seehaus-Fisher and music and songs by Dr. Butts. The play is a mad, dark comedy in which Oscar Wilde arrives in the mining town of Leadville, CO, in 1882 on his lecture tour of America. Madam August and her henchman, Willie, have a stranglehold on Leadville.
Together they lie, cheat and even hang in order to maintain their control. August’s daughter, Frenchie, is pursued by Willie, but she loves her mother’s enemy, the miner Charlie. Oscar outwits the bad guys, frees Leadville, rescues young love, and enjoys a three-course dinner of whiskey, whiskey, and whiskey, with the miners, the Prince of Wales, and Lillie Langtry. Patrons are encouraged to bring their own snacks and beverages.
Rounding out the Summer Festival program will be a series of KEYBOARD RECITALS at 12:15 PM, from Monday, August 5-Thursday, August 9, at Grace Church. Although there is not a fixed price for these recitals, donations will be accepted. Boxed lunches will be available for $6. Several of New Jersey’s leading keyboard artists will be on hand for these recitals. They will be playing music of all periods.
