Sherrill Milnes (born January 10, 1935) is an American dramatic baritone most famous for his Verdi roles. From 1965 until 1997 he was associated with the Metropolitan Opera. His voice is a high dramatic baritone, combining good legato with an incisive rhythmic style.
By 1965, aged 30, he had made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera. His international debuts followed soon thereafter, and Milnes became one of the world's prominent Verdi baritones of the 1970s and 1980s.[1]
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Early life
Milnes was born in Downers Grove, Illinois. His mother and father were dairy farmers. As a child, he exhibited strong and varied musical talents. In addition to singing, he also played piano, violin, viola, double bass, clarinet, and tuba. Although his interests did not always lean toward opera, he spent many hours singing to his father's cows and was once found on a tractor practicing an operatic laugh.
While in high school, Milnes planned to be an anesthesiologist, but later returned to music, studying music education at Drake University and Northwestern University, with the idea of becoming a teacher. He attended North Central College before transferring to Drake University and Northwestern University.
From 1958 until 1963, he was a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus under the direction of Margaret Hillis, performing several times under the baton of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's sixth music director, Fritz Reiner. After graduating from Drake, he spent a summer as an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera and thereafter dedicated himself to becoming an opera singer, studying briefly with the famed soprano Rosa Ponselle.
Milnes was awarded an honorary doctorate from North Central College in 2006.
Career
Milnes began his career with the Opera Company of Boston in 1960, joining Boris Goldovsky's Opera Theater, and debuting as Masetto in Don Giovanni. From very early on in his career, Milnes was managed by well-known talent manager Herbert Barrett. In 1961, he made his debut at Ponselle's Baltimore Opera as Gérard in Andrea Chénier.
In 1964, Milnes made his first major breakthrough singing the role of Valentin in Gounod's Faust at the New York City Opera (opposite Norman Treigle as Méphistophélès), the role with which he also made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1965. In 1967 he created the role of Captain Adam Brant in the world premiere of Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra at the Met.
In 1964, Milnes also made his European debut singing Figaro from The Barber of Seville at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan. However, it was his performance as Miller in Verdi's Luisa Miller in 1968 which catapulted him into international fame.
Milnes was the leading baritone at the Met during the 1970s, singing to great acclaim there, especially for his performances in Verdi operas. Apart from Verdi, Milnes has also performed in bel canto works, most notably Riccardo in I Puritani, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor (which he sang opposite Placido Domingo's Edgardo in Mexico), and King Alfonso in La Favorita, as well as French dramatic baritone roles such as Escamillo in Carmen (which he sang at the Metropolitan Opera twice - in 1966 with Regina Resnik in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose, and again in 1968 with Grace Bumbry in the title role and Nicolai Gedda as Don Jose), the High Priest in Samson et Dalila, and his Met debut, Valentin in Faust. Milnes occasionally drifted into verismo, such as Scarpia in Tosca, which he performed at the Met in 1981 (opposite Carol Neblett in the title role and Jose Carreras as Cavaradossi, and conducted by Giuseppe Patane), although his portrayals of these roles were not documented as much as his Verdi or bel canto repertory.
Beginning in 1982, Milnes experienced sudden serious vocal health problems which took him some time to surmount. In 1984, he sang in the world premiere of Act I of Sergei Rachmaninoff's opera Monna Vanna, which had been left in piano score by the composer and orchestrated by Igor Buketoff.
VOICExperience Foundation
In 2001, Milnes and his wife, soprano Maria Zouves, founded the VOICExperience Foundation, a non-profit organization for the education of young singers. It evolved from a series of master classes led by Milnes, Tony Randall, Martina Arroyo and Barry Tucker, president of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Based in Florida, it provides several educational programs, workshops, outreach events and community enrichment programs. In Florida, the foundation runs The Florida VOICE Project for singers in the Tampa Bay Area. In New York City, the foundation runs the Opera As Drama program, a week-long career development program for emerging professional opera singers which culminates in a public performance at Opera America's National Opera Center. As part of the Savannah Voice Festival, the foundation runs a Teen VOICE workshop and the Milnes VOICE studio.
Discography
Complete Operas and other works
1967
Mozart: Così fan tutte (with L. Price, Troyanos, Raskin, Shirley, Flagello – Leinsdorf, cond.)
Verdi: La traviata (with Caballé, Bergonzi – Prêtre, cond.)
1968
R. Strauss: Salome (with Caballé, R. Lewis, Resnik, J. King – Leinsdorf, cond.)
1969
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, "Choral" (with J. Marsh, Veasey, Domingo – Leinsdorf, cond.)
Orff: Carmina Burana (with Mandac, Kolk – Ozawa, cond.)
Verdi: Il trovatore (with L. Price, Domingo, Cossotto – Mehta, cond.)
1970
Verdi: Aïda (with L. Price, Domingo, Bumbry, Raimondi – Leinsdorf, cond.)
Verdi: Macbeth (with Ludwig, Cossutta – Böhm, cond.) Live recording
1971
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (with Tebaldi, Pavarotti—Bartoletti, cond.)
Puccini: Il tabarro (with L. Price, Domingo—Leinsdorf, cond.)
Verdi: Don Carlo (with Domingo, Caballé, Raimondi, Verrett—Giulini, cond.)
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor (with Sutherland, Pavarotti, Ghiaurov—Bonynge, cond.)
Recitals
Sherrill Milnes in Recital, Volume 1, "There but for You Go I" (Jon Spong, piano)
Sherrill Milnes in Recital, Volume 2, "Kingdom by the Sea" (Jon Spong, piano)
Met Legends: Sherrill Milnes
Grandi Voci: Arias (de la Fuente, cond.)
The Baritone Voice
Great Operatic Duets (with Domingo)
Domingo Conducts Milnes! - Milnes Conducts Domingo! (with Domingo)
Sherrill Milnes - Arias
Abide With Me
The Church's One Foundation
The America I Love
Copland: Old American Songs
Up In Central Park (with B. Sills, Rudel, cond.)
Griffes: Four German Songs; Songs of the Dagger (Ozawa, cond.)
A Salute to American Music (with L. Price, M. Horne, R. Merrill, et.al, Conlon, cond.)
DVDs
1976
Puccini: Tosca (with Kabaivanska, Domingo – Bartoletti, cond., de Bosio, dir.)
1979
Verdi: Luisa Miller (with Scotto, Domingo, Morris; Levine, cond., Merrill, dir.)
1980
Verdi: Don Carlo (Scotto, Troyanos, Moldoveanu, Plishka, Hines; Levine, cond., Dexter, dir.)
1983
Verdi: Ernani (with L. Mitchell, Pavarotti, Raimondi – Levine, cond., Samaritani, dir.)
1984
Verdi: Simon Boccanegra (with Tomowa-Sintow, Moldoveanu, Plishka – Levine, cond., Capobianco, dir.)
1985
Verdi: Nabucco (with Bumbry, Cortez, Raimondi – Santi, cond.)
Sherrill Milnes: An All-Star Gala (various artists)
1986
Sherrill Milnes at Juilliard: An Opera Master Class
1988
Verdi: Il trovatore (with Marton, Zajick, Pavarotti – Levine, cond., Melano, dir.)
1989
Verdi: Aïda (with Millo, Zajick, Domingo – Levine, cond., Frisell, dir.)
1991
The Metropolitan Opera Gala 1991 - 25th Anniversary at Lincoln Center (various artists)
Audio Cassette Tapes
1979
A Grand Night for Singing (with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Columbia Symphony & Jerold Ottley) — Published by CBS, Inc.
