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Shawn E. Milnes

Shawn E. Milnes is a native New Yorker who blogs about opera, sex, and movies at Schleppy Nabucco’s. He is currently at work on a memoir.

articles/2017/01/11/inside-the-opera-about-alan-turing-codebreaker-and-lgbt-hero/170110-teeman-turing-opera-tease_kjgzdp
HERO

The Opera About Alan Turing, LGBT Hero

<p>If the movie <i>The Imitation Game</i> desexualized codebreaking hero Alan Turing, <i>The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing</i> seeks to make his sexuality central to who he was.<br> </p>

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/12/01/how-it-s-a-wonderful-life-became-an-opera/161130-Milnes-its-a-wonderful-life-tease_xlnatr
In Tune

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Becomes an Opera

Composer Jake Heggie has turned the classic Christmas movie, about desperate George Bailey and Clarence the angel, into an opera—inspired by his own father’s suicide.

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/10/30/death-murder-tear-gas-the-metropolitan-opera-has-seen-far-crazier-than-the-sprinkling-of-ashes/161030-Milnes-Opera-tease1_hcl4j0
Low Notes

Emergency at the Met Opera—Again

When a man sprinkled ashes of a mentor into the orchestra pit at the Met on Saturday he sparked a terror alert. It's not the first time the cops have had to rush to the opera.

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/10/20/gertrude-stein-and-alice-b-toklas-s-love-becomes-an-opera/161020-Milnes-opera-tease_vrjmrm
PAST PRESENT

Gertrude and Alice: The Opera

<p><i>27</i>&nbsp; tells the story of Stein and Toklas’s relationship, alongside the luminaries they called friends and championed, including Picasso, Matisse, Man Ray, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway.<br> </p>

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/10/12/in-doomocracy-donald-trump-and-hillary-clinton-will-haunt-your-halloween/161012-_Milnes-Doomocracy-tease_fzzl6f
Fright Night

Donald Trump Will Haunt Your Halloween

‘Doomocracy,’ an immersive ‘House of Political Nightmares’ at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, includes rooms devoted to the two candidates, climate change, and gun violence. Fun!

Shawn E. Milnes

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articles/2016/09/14/how-kurt-vonnegut-s-first-and-only-opera-was-completed/160913-milnes-kurt-vonnegut-tease_ammup9
VOICES

Kurt Vonnegut’s First and Only Opera

<p><em>Happy Birthday, Wanda June</em>, Vonnegut’s reworking of the myth of Odysseus’s return from the Trojan War, was meant as a commentary on the Vietnam War. Now it will be performed as an opera for the first time.</p>

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/08/12/how-lincoln-center-s-1-000-singers-united-new-york-dek/160811-milnes-lincoln-center-choir-tease_nxtgel
ONE VOICE

How 1,000 Singers United New York

This weekend’s ‘Public Domain’ will bring together 1,000 volunteer singers from around New York City, crowd-sourced from an online campaign, to participate in a choral event whose lyrics originate from online autocomplete searches.

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/07/20/glimmerglass-the-opera-festival-that-s-closer-to-nature/160719-milnes-glimmerglass-tease_xyv9or
SOUNDS GOOD

Summer’s Coolest Opera Festival

If you like your opera to come with a side order of hiking and picnicking, head to the summery delights of Glimmerglass.

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/05/02/the-african-american-music-great-making-her-5-bill-debut/160501-milnes-marian-anderson-tease_evfico
HIGH NOTE

The Amazing Story of the Woman on the $5

Marian Anderson sang a landmark 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, and blazed a trail for other black classical singers. Now she is being celebrated on U.S. currency.

Shawn E. Milnes

articles/2016/03/29/first-hamilton-the-musical-now-jfk-the-opera/160328-milnes-jfk-opera-tease_ujnkc0
MOMENT IN TIME

JFK’s Assassination Is Now an Opera

<p>The creators of <i>JFK</i>, a new opera about Jack Kennedy’s assassination, hope that their ‘cosmic’ work brings opera to a new young audience.</p>

Shawn E. Milnes

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