Sherrill Milnes, shown at the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors, will be a judge at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Kentucky District Auditions Nov. 19 and conduct a Master Class at the University of Kentucky Nov. 20. © AP Photo by Jacqueline Roggenbrodt Malonson.
The Lexington Opera Society has announced the judges for this year’s Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, which will 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Hall.
Celebrated baritone Sherrill Milnes returns to the panel, having served in 2001, when he was also worked with students in the UK Opera Theatre production of W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which features two celebrated baritone roles. In addition to judging the competition, the first step to possibly singing in the national rounds on the Metropolitan Opera stage in New York, Milnes will conduct a master class at 2 p.m. Nov. 20 in Memorial Hall.
Joining him as a judge will be Johanna Meier, a Wagnerian soprano who was the first American to sing the role of Isolde in Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at Wagner’s home stage at the Bayreuth Festival, and comprimario tenor Anthony Laciura, who gave many performances with the New Orleans Opera and more than 800 performances with the Met. He also appears in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire as Eddie Kessler, Nucky’s “Man Friday.”
