Savannah voice festival to feature an unprecedented three operas this season

Maria Zouves, an operatic soprano who co-founded the festival with her husband, internationally acclaimed baritone Sherrill Milnes, says the additional operas meet several missions of the VOICE programs.

“Staging three operas, albeit scaled to ‘Savannah size’ is a big undertaking, but we’re sure it will give longtime fans a chance to enjoy more time with their favorite SVF artists, and will allow us to impress first-time patrons with our performers’ versatility and incredible depth,” Zouves said. “Adding these elements rewards those who’ve always supported us and serves as an investment in the future growth and success of the Savannah VOICE Festival.”

In keeping with this year’s theme, “A Summer of Romance,” the first opera tells the star-crossed story of the most famous lovers in history, “Romeo et Juliette.” The pure emotion of this tale is expressed through the gorgeous music of French romantic composer Charles Gounod. This beautiful production, which will be sung in French with English supertitles and a small instrumental ensemble, is directed by world-renowned director Fabrizio Melano and conducted by Jorge Parodi. The cast features festival artists Meechot Marrero as Juliet and Santiago Ballerini as her Romeo.

Since joining the Savannah VOICE Festival, Marrero and Ballerini have both enjoyed tremendous career growth and unprecedented opportunities. Marrero, a soprano who hails from Puerto Rico, returns to this year’s festival from Germany, where she will join the Deutsche Oper Berlin ensemble, after being awarded the American-Berlin Scholarship from the Opera Foundation. Ballerini, an Argentinian tenor, joins the Metropolitan Opera House roster this season and starred in productions with Atlanta Opera, as well as leading roles in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

The first showing of “Romeo et Juliette” is slated for 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, at Asbury Memorial Theatre, 1008 Henry St. in downtown Savannah. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9, SVF fans who missed the first performance will have a second opportunity to catch the elegant opera. The classic love story will again unfold within the stunning sanctuary of Asbury. Both performances are sponsored by Helen Downing.

Patrons who enjoy Ballerini’s performance in “Romeo” will be pleased by the opportunity to see him in action once more. Accompanied by award winning pianist Justina Lee, Ballerini will headline a recital, titled “From Argentina, with Love,” during the 2016 SVF. The performance, from 6:30-8 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 11, will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, located at 1 Macon St. in Savannah. It is sponsored for a second year by Middy Larson.

The VOICE Festival’s 2016 centerpiece event, a specially commissioned Savannah-centric opera, combines thrilling local lore with hauntingly beautiful melodies. Composer in residence - Michael Ching - created “Alice Ryley, A Savannah Ghost Story”, which first debuted in October 2015 to sold-out hometown audiences. Fans’ overwhelmingly positive reception of the work, which was inspired by the book “Historic Haunts of Savannah” by Savannah-based authors Michael Harris and Linda Sickler, led SVF organizers to designate it as this season’s crown jewel. This project is sponsored by Old Town Trolley and supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ching, the SVF’s composer in residence, is already working on an opera for 2017, which will center on the story of a Savannah heroine from the 1950s, Anna Hunter. A prolific and eclectic composer, he is known nationally for his work on innovative operas, including his a cappella adaptation of Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

To support the VOICE Program’s mission of “access to all”, “Alice Ryley” will be staged twice on Tuesday, Aug. 16. The first 55-minute performance is set for 5:30 p.m. for a low ticket price of $35.00, in the ballroom of the Westin Savannah Harbor on Hutchinson Island. The evening’s second event, also in the ballroom, begins at 6:30 p.m. and includes a reception and elegant steak dinner in addition to a dinner theatre type performance of the opera. Reservations for the Festival Opera Gala Dinner may only be made in advance. No tickets will be sold at the door.

The final opera to be showcased this season, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote” (The Magic Flute), also serves as an excellent training and exposure opportunity for rising vocal stars ready to showcase the skills they’ve been honing under the festival’s VOICE Studio Program. This summer development intensive, led by opera legend and SVF co-founder Sherrill Milnes, focuses on personal training designed to take participants to the next level of their careers.

The Studio artists who auditioned for and won coveted roles and covers in “Die Zauberflote” will perform this tale of true love, honor and bravery under the direction of Joachim Schamberger. This scaled down studio production with piano will be sung in German with English dialogue and supertitles. The curtain rises at 5:30 p.m. in the Westin Harbor ballroom. The performance is sponsored by Arlene and Allan Ratner.

“All these smaller productions fit the scale and size of their venues,” continues Zouves. “It’s the voices and music we are featuring here, not any fancy set ideas or design. These stories stand on their own and will transport the audience by their sheer beauty.”

Children 16 and under, Student and Military tickets will be sold for $15 at the door, 30 minutes prior to show time with proper ID.

For more information or to buy tickets to the operas and other SVF events, please visit savannahvoicefestival.org, call 855-76OPERA or email info@savannahvoicefestival.org.

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