I - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 11, 2000 aritone aster omes to UI y Alexander Loney or the Daily Sherrill Milnes has been acclaimed y critics and audiences throughout e world as the premier baritone of e last 30 years. He would certainly e first on just about anyone's list of Three Baritones." He has sung t rtually every major opera house 1 the world and has them conquered. ith a discography of more than 70 cordings and 70 roles in his reper- ire, (soon to be 71 with the Count f Westermoreland in Wolf-Ferrari's ly to be added at Barcelona) Milnes rolific career of 41 years is impres- ive by any measure. This master of the operatic stage ucted a series of master classes t the School of Music on Monday nd Tuesday. Milnes turned 65 last January and eems to be taking maturity well. He as been doing more teaching lately nd recently accepted a position at orthwestern. He has also taken on onducting in recent years with Aida nd Elijah. When asked about his kter career he agrees that he can r amore to certain roles where an man is appropriate like Gianni chicchi and Falstaff, but he doesn't ssay the sheer number of roles he as in the past. As he put it, he's been running a little less fast." Milnes grew up in Downers Grove, Ilinois on a dairy farm. He studied a ariety of instruments as a child but nded up going to college to pursue nedicine. After a year and a half of *led he decided he wanted to pur- ue music professionally and nrolled at Drake University. He ived voice to mouth afterward until is first big debut as Masetto at oston in 1960. His career centered round the great Verdi baritone roles or which he was universally known .s the foremost interpreter. The master class on Monday shll to host Lceland Symphony OrChestra shannon O'Sullivan )aily Arts Writer The remote nation of Iceland and a 'irst class symphony orchestra; do these wo phrases seem to go together? Some nay think it is impossible for a nation kith only 270,000 people to be able to Reid's 'Midnight Sun' a story of soul- searching in the Alaskan wilderness By Nicole Dabbous For the Daily In Fairbanks, Alaska, the world seems safe. Jack and his friends chase construction jobs during the day and leave in the evening to find solace in a beer or a joint. They build and expand structures and tear down the forests. But outside of Fairbanks, Midnight Sun Elwood Reid Grade: A- Doubleday man is no longer king. When the sun sets over the untouched Alaskan back- drop, nature's threat rises to s h a d o w mankind's illu- sive light. In Elwood Reid's "Midnight Sun," Jack leaves the safe haven of Fairbanks and And they both found that regardless of the muscle and one's notion of control, man is subject to failure and to loss of control. While still in his undergraduate years, Reid played football for the University of Michigan. "I was a jock, but I loved to read," he said. Reid knew his passion, but lacked the determination to achieve his desires. He went to Alaska and worked in construction where he, again, neglected his mind and found control through his body. It was here where he understood where his actions might lead him. One path led to the character of Jack's friend, Burke. Consumed by hard labor, Burke forgets that it is not always man's role to build and take away. He is lured by money and hopes of gold to the mysterious com- munity hidden from civilization. He goes with the confidence that man is unbreakable, that mankind is the controller. With him he brings Jack, who is m.ore passive than Burke. Jack believes that with words, rather than strength, can one find control. Through persuasion, not violence, he can bring Penny back from the community to her dying father. Burke brings guns, Jack shares his thoughts and together they attempt to manipulate the untouched environ- ment of the hidden community that they seek. However, as Jack, Burke, and Reid discover through their travels in Alaska, nature is too wild to be con- trolled. Man is too weak when removed from the environment he himself creates. The heavy weight of darkness can crush even the strongest of men. Although Jack survives his jour- ney, Reid assures that "he is not sup- posed to be the hero." He, too, is capable of murder; control is only present within Jack's own controlled environment. Initially it may seem that Reid's "Midnight Sun" caters only to 'men. The narrator admits in the opening paragraph, "All that mattered was the work, the coin and those brief moments just after punch-out when I walked back to my truck, bone tired and feeling like a king for having laid it down yet another day." Being female, I sighed with the assumption that this would be some macho novel written by another macho football player who likes to lay things down and build things up. However, this very disappointment makes Jack's progression and alteration from his journey convincing. Elwood Reid, author of "If I Don't Six," "What Salmon Know" and many published articles, shows with "Midnight Sun" that he has more under his belt than a jock strap. Courtesy ofSchoo of Music Sherrill Milnes has appeared on more than 70 recordings In his 41-year career. evening was both entertaining and insightful, if a bit long-winded. The format allowed each singer to per- form their piece and then get advice from Milnes. He would analyze their singing and together they would work through the song. As a nice way to mitigate a singer's nerves and dry throat he would give everyone a cup of water. This was indicative of his ability to make each singer feel comfortable. Milnes had said he tried to avoid being overly negative and destroying a young singer's fragile ego. And if there ever was a fragile ego it would be that of a young singer. Gary Moss, Shaina Taelman, Brian Buser, Loren Allardyce, Christopher Meerdink, Kindra Scharich, Guilherme Rogano, and Christine Field performed for the audience. Though Milnes had individualized advice to offer each student, there were certain things he stressed with every singer. First and foremost, he worked on the line of the song. He tried and suc- ceeded almost unilaterally to get the singers to stop singing "syllabicly" and sing on a true legato line, a thing at which Milnes himself is particular- ly good. Milnes made the point that a singer's performance starts when they are first seen and he spent time with almost everyone on their stage appearance. He also turned the visual aspect around and said, "Singing is imagery." He applied this concept of visualization to technique and it got results. Though it was welcome to see someone talk about the often ignored visual side of opera, the source was a bit odd since Milnes has been at times placed in the stand-and-sing category. Guilherme Rogano, who performed an aria of the jealous counts from Le Nozze di Figaro, had the most con- vincingly acted portrayal of the evening. Milnes made some proper and good adjustments to it, but his insistence on playing it down took away some of its life. The highlight of the evening was Loren Allardyce's performance of an aria from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette. She sang with absolute conviction and a masterful sense of the inherent drama in the music. Milnes was impressed enough to jest that she did- n't need any water afterwards. Yet he was still able to noticeably improve her performance by working on some specifics of diction and phrasing. The students at Northwestern will be lucky to have Milnes on their music faculty. His experience and sense for what a student is making great strides in the musicality of the next generation of American opera singers. enters on a journey into the depths of the Alaskan wilderness, in search of one girl, one community and him- self. As the narrator, Jack, explains, in Alaska "everybody was searching for something." No one just goes there. Reid himself journeyed to Alaska after getting his undergradu- ate degree from the University of Michigan. Like Jack, Reid too went looking. _.----"-.. iw. .. ACTORS/MODELS NEEDED FOR CASTING DIRECTORS AND AGENTS WEBSITE NEW AGE ENTERTAINMENT, INC. will be in your city soon in search of new talent for ActorsModelsDirectcom. For more information call 818-848-7318 or log onto ActorsModelsDirectcom Iceland Symphony Orchestra Hill Auditorium October 12, 2000 produce such an amazing orches- tra in a small time frame, but the world-renowned I e el a n d S y m p h o n y Orchestra would prove them wrong. As the youngest national orchestra in Europe, founded in 1950, its remarkably high level of artistic LIVE AND LEARN JAPANESE! The Waseda Oregon Transnational Program, Winter & Spring 2001, in Tokyo, Japan, is a comparative US-Japanese Societies study program that mixes US-based and international students with Japanese undergraduates at the prestigious Waseda University. Three levels of Japanese language instruction are offered in addition to US-Japanese Societies courses in the humanities and social sciences. Scholarships of up to $1000 are available! Deadline for applications is October 27, 2000. For more information, contact: Waseda Oregon Office Portland State University (800) 823-7938 www.wasedaoregon.org bility'is amazing coming from such a mall country. Twice a year, the Orchestra leaves its 1ome in the Haskolabio Concert Hall in Reykjavik to perform tours abroad. They have previously played in the U.S., tamely at Carnegie Hall, where their cerformance was described as having oth, burnished string tone, bright, focused winds and handsome, well- behaved bass, an excellent balance over- all." This October the Iceland Symphony Orchestra embarks on a fifteen-city North American Tour, including the Kennedy Center and a return to Carneigie Hall, also stopping at Hill Auditorium this Thursday night. This c ert is perhaps the most important s for director Rico Saccani, as he is a University alumni. Attending in 1981 and 1982, he received three Master of Music degrees in piano, conducting, and piano performance. Thursday night watch out for Icelandic violinist Judith Ingolsson. i zv~ar ueflctiflfl * - ~' *