(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) will present a new production of Gioachino Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) as the centerpiece of its Princeton Festival to be held June 9-25, 2023. Rossen Milanov, Edward T. Cone Music Director and artistic head of the Princeton Festival, will conduct the opera which will receive a three-performance run.
“I am thrilled to continue to celebrate the Festival’s opera origins with a fresh production of Rossini’s great work in the opera buffa tradition,” says Milanov. “Il barbiere di Siviglia is perhaps the most popular of all comic operas, and will appeal to anyone who loves a good laugh and great singing!”
The four-act comic opera includes the iconic character of Figaro, a barber turned valet, who assists Count Almaviva in wooing the beautiful Rosina away from her lecherous guardian, Dr. Bartolo. The story of Figaro was originally conceived by the French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais in his eponymous Le Barbier de Séville, the first in a series of three plays chronicling the character’s escapades. The opera is considered the prequel to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), likewise inspired by Beaumarchais’ plays.
This season’s Princeton Festival will once again take place primarily on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden. Plans are underway to install an even larger performance pavilion with upgraded seating offering optimal sight lines.
PSO Executive Director Marc Uys says, “The 2022 Princeton Festival was a huge success, bringing a central, outdoor destination venue to Princeton for the first time. In 2023, we look forward to making the most of the surrounding grounds, continuing to offer delightful opportunities for socializing and enrichment between high quality performances of opera, musical theater, and concerts featuring top guest artists.”
2023 Princeton Festival ticket packages will be available in January. To keep tabs on plans for the opera and other Festival events, bookmark princetonsymphony.org/festival.
Founded in 2004, the Princeton Festival quickly established a reputation for artistic excellence and innovative programming in the performing arts. Every year in June, thousands of people from the mid-Atlantic region and beyond come to the Festival to enjoy the quality and variety of its programs. Offerings include opera, musical theater, jazz, and a constantly evolving selection of other genres, including dance, world music, orchestral pops, choral concerts, country music, chamber recitals, and an annual piano competition. The Festival has long-standing partnerships with public libraries and local churches, and promotes life-long learning in the arts through free educational lectures presented to a wide and diverse community.
Programs, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.
Internationally renowned conductor and Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov looks forward to collaborating in 2022-23 with established and emerging artists of the orchestral world and helming the PSO’s popular June performing arts celebration – The Princeton Festival.
Respected and admired by audiences and musicians alike, he has established himself as a conductor with considerable national and international presence. In addition to leading the PSO, Mr. Milanov is the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra in Ljubljana. During his eleven-year tenure with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Milanov conducted more than 200 performances. In 2015, he completed a 15-year tenure as music director of the nationally recognized training orchestra Symphony in C in New Jersey and in 2013, a 17-year tenure with the New Symphony Orchestra in his native city of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Mr. Milanov has collaborated with Komische Oper Berlin (Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk), Opera Oviedo with the Spanish premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Mazzepa and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (awarded best Spanish production for 2015), and Opera Columbus (Verdi’s La Traviata). He has been seen at New York City Ballet and collaborated with choreographers such as Mats Ek, Benjamin Millepied, and most recently Alexei Ratmansky in the critically acclaimed revival of Swan Lake in Zurich with Zurich Ballet and in Paris with La Scala Ballet.
Mr. Milanov is deeply committed to music education, presenting Link Up education projects with Carnegie Hall and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and leading the PSO’s annual BRAVO! School Day concerts. He was named Bulgaria’s Musician of the Year in 2005; he won a 2011 ASCAP award for adventurous programming of contemporary music at the PSO; and he was selected as one of the top 100 most influential people in New Jersey in 2014. In 2017, he was recipient of a Columbus Performing Arts Prize awarded by The Columbus Foundation. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School.
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of New Jersey’s finest music organizations, a position established through performances of beloved masterworks, innovative music by living composers, and an extensive network of educational programs offered to area students free of charge. Led by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov, the PSO presents orchestral, pops, and chamber music programs of the highest artistic quality, supported by lectures and related events that supplement the concert experience. Its flagship summer program the Princeton Festival brings an array of performing arts and artists to Princeton during multiple weeks in June. Through PSO BRAVO!, the orchestra produces wide-reaching and impactful education programs in partnership with local schools and arts organizations that culminate in students attending a live orchestral performance. The PSO receives considerable support from the Princeton community and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, regularly garnering NJSCA’s highest honor. Recognition of engaging residencies and concerts has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the PSO’s commitment to new music has been acknowledged with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and a Copland Fund Award. The only independent, professional orchestra to make its home in Princeton, the PSO performs at historic Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.
Photos of the opera stage in the Festival's 2022 performance pavilion (taken during 2022 dress rehearsals for Derrick Wang's opera Scalia/Ginsburg). Photos courtesy of PSO Staff
