Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Singers vie to learn from master

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published December 18, 2006

	Opera legend Sherrill Milnes, center, his wife, acclaimed soprano Maria Zouves, right, and her assistant, Middy Larson, judge an audition Sunday at the Patel Conservatory in Tampa. Watch slideshow of the auditions
[Times photo: Justin Cook]

ADVERTISEMENT [AP Photo] Brandon Evans, 21, of Palm Harbor, gives it his best shot.

TAMPA - Most of the singers are young enough to be American Idols, but their taste in music dates back 400 years.

Opera brought them to the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, where they auditioned Sunday for a lesson from three-time Grammy-winning baritone Sherrill Milnes.

Nineteen tried out for a master lesson with the man who sang more than 650 performances at the world-famous Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Only six would make it.

Singers dressed in evening wear and armed themselves with pieces that they practiced in rehearsal rooms before the audition. One was as young as 17, and several were college students hoping that Milnes could help them polish before performance auditions.

At the master lesson Jan. 14, Milnes will focus on dramatic techniques. It will be a taste of the comprehensive opera program that the Patel Conservatory is coordinating next year.

But Sunday's audition was also a recruitment for one of the world's leading operatic training programs, V.O.I.C.Experience, founded by Milnes' wife, Maria Zouves. The two sat side by side to judge. The criteria?

"It's hard to put into words," Milnes said. "Beauty of sound, language skills, pizazz - energy, certainly."

Rule No. 1: Don't bore him.

Emily Packard, 22, a University of South Florida junior, entered the room in a black dress with a biography, head shot, resume and repertoire list.

The slim, curly haired singer moved from California to Land O'Lakes with her husband two years ago and has had trouble finding opera programs in Florida. But she keeps trying. Opera is her first love - it's the one kind of singing that is all about the human voice.

Packard sang a piece from a Mozart opera in German, and Milnes listened intently, to make sure her German accent was smooth. It went well, and Packard was onto the next piece she practiced.

Then Zouves chimed in.

"Can I throw you a curveball?" Zouves asked. Nervousness flashed across Packard's face. Zouves wanted to hear an Italian Mozart piece that Packard hadn't practiced in a while.

As Packard sang, Zouves whispered the words to help her out. When she finished, she searched the judges' faces for a reaction.

"Consider yourself admitted," Zouves said.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 18, 2006, 00:53:23]