(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Westminster Opera Theatre brings Verdi’s comic opera Falstaff to the stage of the Robert L. Annis Playhouse at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton on Friday, April 15 and Saturday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. It will be sung in Italian with English supertitles and fully staged with chamber ensemble. The comic opera will be performed by students at Westminster Choir College. William Hobbs is the music director, and Trent Blanton is the director.
Old, large and lecherous, Sir John Falstaff attempts to seduce two married women in order to gain access to their husbands’ money. Little does he know what reward awais him at the hands of the ladies and their husbands as they plot to put an end to his advances once and for all. Based on Shakespeare’s play The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff was one of only two comedies written by Verdi in more than 50 years of composing. It has since become a perennial favorite in opera houses around the world.
Westminster Opera Theatre has been praised for its innovative productions of a wide range of operas. Participants in the program have gone on to perform in opera houses around the world. Recent seasons have included La Clemenza di Tito, The Dialogues of the Carmelites, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Così fan tutte, Der Schauspieldirektor, Gianni Schicchi, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Il mondo della luna and I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
Music director William Hobbs works at many of the world’s major opera houses as conductor and coach. These include the Opéra National de Paris, the Salzburg Festival, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington Opera and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. He has assisted conductors Claudio Abbado, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jiří Bělohlávek, Sir Andrew Davis, James Conlon, Robert Spano, Richard Bonynge, Donald Runnicles, Jiři Kout, Marco Armiliato and many others. He is also the founder and artistic director of Opera Slavica, which is devoted to presenting full productions of masterworks from Russian, Czech and Polish composers, providing singers with no background in these languages with the knowledge and training to sing, read and translate them, and offering professional guidance for reaching industry standards.
Director Trent Blanton is an assistant professor of Theatre at Rider University. An active member of Actors’ Equity and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Mr. Blanton’s professional acting credits include: La Cage aux Folles at the Forestburgh Playhouse; Sweet Charity at the Aurora Theatre; Slippery as Sin and The Gun Show with Passage Theatre Company; Les Misérables at Actors’ Playhouse; A Christmas Carol at Actors Theatre of Louisville; 1776 at Ford’s Theatre and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera; Fiddler on the Roof at Starlight and The MUNY); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew with Georgia Shakespeare; and Masada at York Theatre. He played virtually every major city in North America in the Broadway national tour of Les Misérables and appeared in the Chinese premiere of Les Miz with Colm Wilkinson at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. For his direction of Rider’s productions of The Crucible and Metamorphoses, Mr. Blanton received an Excellence in Directing Award from the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival.
Westminster Choir College of Rider University is located at 101 Walnut Lane in Princeton. Tickets are available through the box office at 609-921-2663 or online at www.rider.edu/arts.
PHOTO: Westminster Choir College student Thomas Lynch sings the title role in Westminster Opera Theatre’s production of Verdi’s comic opera Falstaff.
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