Sherrill Milnes

Sherrill Eustace Milnes established himself as one of the foremost American baritones during the final decades of the twentieth century, earning particular recognition for his command of leading roles by Verdi and Puccini.

In childhood he studied piano and violin privately while performing on tuba with his high-school marching band. Although he initially contemplated medical studies, Milnes enrolled at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and concentrated instead on musical training; he subsequently moved to Northwestern University, where Hermanus Baet became his instructor.

His earliest professional work came with the Margaret Hillis Chorale in Chicago, after which he joined the Santa Fe Opera Chorus and began taking on minor solo parts. The role of Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni marked his formal operatic debut during a 1960 tour by the Boston Opera company. He then worked for a short period with the celebrated soprano Rosa Ponselle, who engaged him for the Baltimore Civic Opera, where he sang Gérard in Andrea Chénier in 1961. Notice followed quickly when he portrayed Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in 1964; that success led to an engagement with the New York City Opera as Valentin in Gounod’s Faust and, the next year, to his Metropolitan Opera debut in the same part opposite Montserrat Caballé.

Although he performed in San Francisco, Barcelona, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Vienna, London, Hamburg, Milan, and Chicago, his extended tenure at the Metropolitan Opera together with an extensive discography accounted for most of his renown.

Milnes stood in a distinguished succession of American baritones that included Lawrence Tibbett, Leonard Warren, and Robert Merrill. He was especially admired for his Verdi characterizations, undertaking every significant baritone role by that composer, while also delivering a memorable Escamillo in Carmen and a commanding Rigoletto. His interpretation of Puccini’s Scarpia emphasized a veneer of seductive smoothness over the character’s malevolence, an approach he likewise applied to Iago in Verdi’s Otello.

After a period of reduced activity in the 1980s, Milnes maintained a selective performing schedule and remained engaged as a teacher.