Sherrill Milnes – 80 This Year – Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Met Debut at Guild Luncheon (Nov 13); Presents World Premiere of Alice Ryley: A Savannah Ghost Opera (Oct 30)
After celebrating his 80th birthday earlier this year, now Sherrill Milnes – the definitive Verdi baritone of his generation – looks forward to commemorating the 50th anniversary of his Metropolitan Opera debut. It was on December 22, 1965, that he “handled himself with aplomb” (New York Times) in his first appearance at the house, singing Valentin in Faust during the company’s final season at the “Old Met,” its original midtown home. To mark this milestone, the 81st Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon, “Golden Celebration” (Nov 13), honors the three-time Grammy Award-winner alongside his fellow Met legends Grace Bumbry, Mirella Freni, and Renata Scotto, all of whom, like him, celebrate the golden anniversaries of their debuts at the venerable New York opera house this year. Click here to see Milnes at the Metropolitan Opera in 1979, singing “Credo di un dio crudel” in Verdi’s Otello.
Fall also sees the peerless American baritone serve on the Artists Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, DC (Dec 6), and – as Vice President and Chairman of the Audition and Awards Committee of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation – receive recognition at Lincoln Center’s 2015 Richard Tucker Gala (Nov 1).
Milnes continues to make invaluable contributions to opera, providing extensive education and mentoring to the next generation through his VOICExperience Foundation and annual Savannah VOICE Festival. He explains:
“It’s possible that I am America’s oldest male opera singer, perhaps even one of the oldest in the world. Early in my career I had the great fortune to work with singers like Bergonzi, Tucker, Corelli, and Gedda, and conductors like Karajan, Bernstein, Leinsdorf, Solti, and Giulini. Now I feel it’s a great responsibility to pass on what I’ve learned.”
His two VOICE programs recently joined forces in one of their most ambitious ventures to date, when they commissioned a new opera from Michael Ching. The Hawaiian-born composer’s many previous examples of the genre include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011), of which the Wall Street Journal observes: “Mr. Ching’s remarkably inventive opera is a celebration of what voices can do.” The composer’s new work, Alice Ryley: A Savannah Ghost Opera, not only makes a welcome addition to the repertoire, but pays tribute to Savannah’s unique history. The composer drew inspiration from the tragic tale of Alice Ryley, the first woman to be hanged in the colony of Georgia. An Irish Catholic teen who came to the New World as an indentured servant to escape the famine at home, Ryley was bought by a plantation owner who abused both her and his butler, Richard White. She and Richard fell in love, and one night the two turned on their master and killed him. Both were imprisoned, and Ryley was held in jail until she gave birth to White’s baby, whereupon she was hanged in Savannah’s Wright Square; her lover was hanged shortly thereafter. According to local legend, her ghost continues to haunt the square, where she searches in vain for her baby, who died just 45 days after his mother met her fate.
A musical journey through Savannah’s history by way of one of her most famous ghosts, Ching’s new opera fittingly receives its world premiere performances on the eve of Halloween, at Savannah’s historic Charles H. Morris Center (Oct 30). Under the expert direction of Maria Zouves, Executive Director of the Savannah VOICE Festival, the all-professional cast features Jessica Best, Ashley Dannewitz, Ann Louise Glasser, James Wright and Cody Austin, with a speaking role written for Milnes himself. Milnes says:
“Michael Ching’s music is tonally centered with just the right amount of dissonance for a modern opera. His rhymes have muscle, and he’s not afraid to repeat beautiful motifs or weave them into his music. Alice Ryley is a very powerful, dramatic work, vividly bringing to life the predicament of an Irish Catholic amongst the Protestants who hate her – it’s heartbreaking. When we see Alice’s face in the final scene, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.”
High-resolution promotional photos may be downloaded here.
http://savannahvoicefestival.org/
http://voicexperiencefoundation.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SherrillMilnes
https://www.facebook.com/VOICExperience?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/SavannahVOICEFestival?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/SavannahVOICE
https://twitter.com/VOICExperience
Sherrill Milnes: fall engagements
Oct 23
Savannah, GA
The Ford Plantation
“Songs to the Moon” concert
Milnes VOICE Programs Festival Artists
Oct 24
Savannah, GA
A Ghostly Opera Benefit
Honoring Composer Carlisle Floyd with the Milnes VOICE Award
Savannah VOICE Festival fall fundraiser
Oct 25
Savannah, GA
The Landings
A Salon Masterclass by Sherrill Milnes
Oct 26
Hilton Head, SC
VOICES on the Island Concert
Oct 30
Savannah, GA
Morris Center
Savannah VOICE Festival world premiere of Milnes VOICE Programs co-commission:
Michael Ching: Alice Ryley: A Savannah Ghost Opera (two performances)
Nov 1
New York, NY
Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala 2015
Milnes to be recognized
Nov 13
New York, NY
“Golden Celebration,” 81st Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild luncheon
Honors Milnes, Grace Bumbry, Mirella Freni, and Renata Scotto: all artists who made debuts 50 years ago in final year of old Met
Dec 6
Washington, DC
Kennedy Center Honors
Milnes serves on the Artists Committee
Dec 22
50th anniversary of 1965 Metropolitan Opera debut
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© 21C Media Group, September 2015