Sherrill Milnes

Sherrill Milnes — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

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.

Milnes' talents were not confined, however, solely to the stage. As early as 1971 he had already received critical acclaim while featured in the role of David during the premier of Ezra Laderman's opera And David Wept, on the CBS Television network, under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini. Nearly a decade earlier in 1964 he also collaborated with Antonini, playing the role of Saint Joseph in a televised adaptation of Hector Berlioz's sacred oratorio L'enfance du Christ.

Milnes was awarded Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity's Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award at its 1982 national convention in Urbana, Illinois. He had been initiated into the Fraternity's Alpha Beta chapter at Drake University in 1954. In the same year was honored by the Italian government as "Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica"

On July 5, 1986, he performed on the New York Philharmonic's tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, which was televised live by ABC. The orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta, performed in Central Park.

In September 1996, Milnes was honored by the French government with the distinguished Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. After 32 years and 653 performances, he made his final appearance at the Metropolitan on March 22, 1997 as Amonasro in Aida.

In 1998, Milnes published a memoir, American Aria.

Milnes is currently a professor emeritus in voice at Northwestern University. He is a recipient of Yale University's Sanford Medal.

Milnes was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2003 in the area of The Performing Arts.

Milnes has been a resident of Cresskill, New Jersey, and currently resides in Palm Harbor, Florida with his wife and son, Theo.

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.)

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (with Domingo, Caballé, Goeke-Santi, cond.)

Verdi: Rigoletto (with Sutherland, Pavarotti, Tourangeau, Talvela—Bonynge, cond.)

1972

Verdi: Attila (with Raimondi, Deutekom, Bergonzi—Gardelli, cond.)

Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco (with Caballé, Domingo—Levine, cond.)

1973

Puccini: Tosca (with L. Price, Domingo – Mehta, cond.)

1974

Puccini: La bohème (with Caballé, Domingo, Blegen, Sardinero, Raimondi – Solti, cond.)

Verdi: I vespri siciliani (with Arroyo, Domingo, Raimondi – Levine, cond.)

1975

Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (with Sills, Gedda, Capecchi, Raimondi, Barbieri – Levine, cond.)

Verdi: Luisa Miller (with Pavarotti, Caballé – Maag, cond.)

Massenet's La Navarraise (with Horne, Domingo, Bacquier – H. Lewis, cond.)

Verdi: Il trovatore [with bonus tracks from a 1968 recording of Act II with Richard Tucker] (with Caballé, Cossutta, Arkhipova – Guadagno, cond.)

1976

Giordano: Andrea Chénier (with Scotto, Domingo – Levine, cond.)

Verdi: Macbeth (with Cossotto, Carreras, Raimondi – Muti, cond.)

Massenet: Thaïs (with Sills, Gedda, van Allan – Maazel, cond.)

1977

Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur (with Scotto, Domingo, Obraztsova – Levine, cond.)

Bizet: Carmen (with Berganza, Domingo, Cotrubas – C. Abbado, cond.)

Puccini: La fanciulla del West (with Neblett, Domingo – Mehta, cond.)

Verdi: La forza del destino (with L. Price, Domingo, Cossotto, Giaiotti, Bacquier – Levine, cond.)

Verdi: La traviata (with Cotrubas, Domingo – Kleiber, cond.)

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast (Gibson, cond.)

1978

Rossini: Guglielmo Tell (with Freni, Pavarotti, Mazzoli, Jones, Ghiaurov – Chailly, cond.)

Verdi: Otello (with Domingo, Scotto – Levine, cond.)

Verdi: Rigoletto (with Sills, Kraus, M. Dunn, Ramey – Rudel, cond.)

Puccini: Tosca (with Freni, Pavarotti – Rescigno, cond.)

1979

Puccini: La bohème (with Scotto, Neblett, Kraus, Manuguerra, Plishka, Tajo; Levine, cond.)

1980

Massenet: Le roi de Lahore (with Sutherland, Lima, Ghiaurov, Morris, Tourangeau – Bonynge, cond.)

1981

Ponchielli: La Gioconda (with Caballé, Baltsa, Pavarotti, Ghiaurov – Bartoletti, cond.)

1983

Thomas: Hamlet (with Sutherland, Morris, Conrad, Winbergh, Lewis, Gelling; Bonynge, cond.)

1986

Ponchielli: La Gioconda (with Marton, Ramey, Lamberti – Patanè, cond.

1990

Fauré: Requiem (with Te Kanawa – Dutoit, cond.)

2001

Wolf-Ferrari: Sly (with Carreras, Kabatu – Gimenez, cond.)

Sherrill Milnes

Sherrill Milnes

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