Princeton Festival Guild Artists' Roundtable to Feature MADAMA BUTTERFLY Cast & Creative Team

Princeton Symphony Orchestra's (PSO's) Princeton Festival Guild will present its annual Artists' Roundtable on Tuesday, June 2, at 6:30pm in the Princeton Public Library's Community Room. The Guild invites anyone curious about what goes into putting on an opera to this round table discussion centered on Giacomo Puccini's tragic opera Madama Butterfly.

Panelists led by Maestro Rossen Milanov will discuss the upcoming Princeton Festival production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Stage Director Eve Summer and members of the cast will provide delightful insights into artists' roles, and the joys and challenges of being in the opera business.

Madama Butterfly is a masterpiece and one of the most popular works in the opera repertoire. Its plot explores themes of love, betrayal, and heartbreak. It is a tragic love story involving a young Japanese woman, Cio-Cio-San, and an American naval officer, Pinkerton.

Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov has established himself as a conductor with considerable national and international presence. In addition to leading the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Festival, 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. Noted for his versatility, he is a welcomed presence in the worlds of opera and ballet. He has collaborated with Komische Oper Berlin (Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk), Opera Oviedo with the Spanish premiere of Tchaikovsky's Mazzepa and Bartok'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 some of the best-known choreographers of our time 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.

Described as having “a gift for translating classic symbolism into familiar detail" with work that is “transfixingly personal,” Eve Summer's recent directing credits include Ariodante (Boston Baroque), Trouble in Tahiti (The Glimmerglass Festival), Rigoletto, Tosca, Don Giovanni (Opera Columbus), Così fan tutte, Les Mamelles de Tirésias/The Seven Deadly Sins, Albert Herring (The Curtis Institute), The Barber of Seville (Opera Saratoga), The Little Prince (Tulsa Opera), Don Giovanni (Opera Carolina), and L'elisir d'amore, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, The Pirates of Penzance, Don Giovanni, The Mikado, Le docteur Miracle, Così fan tutte (Opera Grand Rapids). Acclaimed for her “approach [which] refreshes hope for the future of opera,” additional recent credits include: The Pearl Fishers (Opera Tampa and Opera in Williamsburg), La Traviata (Annapolis Opera), The Tales of Hoffmann (Opera Orlando and Opera in Williamsburg), La donna del lago (Resonance Works), Xerxes (Connecticut Early Music Festival), La clemenza di Tito, Little Women (Boston University Opera Institute), and Le nozze di Figaro (Knoxville Opera).

The Princeton Festival Guild is dedicated to introducing young and old alike to the joy and inspiration of Great Performances. The Guild supports the Festival's many educational and community engagement programs designed to excite, inform, inspire, and invite discovery and engagement. Guild members play a critical role in the overall success of the Festival by supporting Festival events, organizing fund raisers, and providing hospitality.

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