Princeton Festival Lectures: Baroque binge, opera immersion 

PRINCETON FESTIVAL LECTURES

The eight free virtual events in this year’s edition of the Princeton Festival’s (www.princetonfestival.org) popular lecture series include an interview on immersive video, an international poetry reading, and a special focus on Baroque music and opera. All launch at 7 pm on the dates listed below, and remain available through the end of June.

“Our first lecture kicks off four consecutive evenings centered on Baroque music, alternating lectures and concerts,” said Gregory Geehern, the Festival’s Acting Artistic Director. “For lovers of Bach, Vivaldi, and other Baroque composers, it will be like binge-watching a favorite TV show.”

The first lecture, Profound Harmony and Invention (Monday, June 7), features scholar and musician John Buckhalter demonstrating the style and sound of Baroque music with music that the Festival’s Baroque Chamber Ensemble will play during its ticketed concerts on June 8 and 10.

On Wednesday, June 9, the evening between the two concerts, viewers can participate in an Artists’ Round Table where members of the chamber ensemble will reveal the secrets of playing Baroque music correctly.

Four lectures will allow opera lovers, art history buffs, and fans of music in general to immerse themselves in their chosen subjects.

• In What the Opera Meant to Paris in the 19^th Century (Friday, June 11), Princeton Art Museum docent Marianne Grey will trace the influence of opera through artists such as Manet, Renoir, and Pissarro.
• Rutgers music professor and regular festival lecturer Timothy Urban explores Wine, Women, and Song in Opera on Monday, June 14.
• Harold Kuskin, opera expert, Overture series lecturer, and former Metropolitan Opera backstage tour guide, surveys Expressions of Love in Opera on Tuesday, June 15.
• Finally, Stuart Holt, Director of School Programs and Community Engagement for the Metropolitan Opera, compares two leading forms of music theater in Opera or Musical? – The Fine Line that Divides Them on Wednesday, June 17.

International Poetry Reading

On Saturday, June 12, the Princeton Festival will present a unique poetry event, featuring poets from Japan, China, Venezuela, Italy, Russia, and Switzerland reading selections from the Butterfly collection of poems by Mari Kashiwagi in their own languages and English translations. Kashiwagi, a prominent Japanese poet, originally previewed the collection at an in-person reading during the 2018 Princeton Festival.

 

About The Princeton Festival
The Princeton Festival is a multi-genre festival of the performing arts, now in its 17^th year. Its mission is to serve its communities with distinctive and diverse programs that excite, inform, inspire, and invite discovery and engagement.