Savannah Music Festival and Savannah VOICE Festival will co-produce a full-scale opera in March 2015, a first in the festival’s 26-year history.
Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” and “Suor Angelica” will be presented March 20 and 22 at Lucas Theatre for the Arts, featuring the Savannah Philharmonic.
This new operatic collaboration featuring two of Puccini’s three-part series of one-act operas will be conducted by Eugene Kohn, with baritone Mark Delavan and soprano Veronica Villaroel in the title roles, directed by Joachim Schamberger.
The 2015 opera will be a highlight of Sherrill Milnes’ 80th birthday celebration. Milnes is America’s most recorded opera singer and three-time Grammy award-winning baritone who founded VOICExperience with his wife, soprano Maria Zouves.
Together they launched the first Savannah VOICE Festival in 2013 with the help of city leaders. Now in its second season (Aug. 1-17), SVF brings more than 60 singers to the city, offering performances and community outreach in and around Savannah.
Festival events range from a production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, concerts of sacred music, Broadway, arias and popular song to master classes led by Milnes and other faculty members. For information on remaining events, go to www.savannahvoicefestival.org.
“As the city’s musical offerings expand,” Milnes says, “We hope our work gives music lovers one more reason to visit Savannah.”
Though it has a history of presenting recitals by world-renowned vocalists, this is the Savannah Music Festival’s first full opera production. In addition to year-round broadcast, outreach and education programs, SMF produces a pioneering cross-genre music festival with more than 100 concerts over 17 days.
Of SMF, Financial Times wrote, “the diverse modes of musical expression co-exist with utter equanimity in this beguiling port city.”
BUY TICKETS
Opera tickets go on sale with the complete Savannah Music Festival 2015 schedule on Nov. 6, and can be purchased at www.savannahmusicfestival.org, by phone at 912-525-5050 or in person at the Savannah Box Office at 216 E. Broughton St.