The 2016 Savannah VOICE Festival capped off a wildly successful fourth season on Sunday, Aug. 21 with a sold-out finale performance at the Charles H. Morris Center at Trustees Garden. Hundreds of fans crowded into the venue for the “Summer of Romance” concert, which also served as an opportunity for organizers to unveil the 2017 season lineup – as well as a few exciting announcements.

Like this year’s Savannah VOICE Festival, next year’s event will feature an astounding three operas and plenty of longstanding festival favorites. However, in order to fit in all the shows, recitals, classes and activities, the annual celebration of classical music will expand from two weeks to three.

Slated to run from Aug. 5-27 2017, the fifth annual VOICE Festival will present two operas based on the 18^th Century Figaro plays written by the French Pierre Beaumarchais, Le Barbier premiered in 1775. Its sequel, Le Mariage, was initially premiered six years later.  The Savannah VOICE Festival in true Star Wars style will present the Marriage of Figaro before its prequel – Barber of Seville. 

Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” (Le Nozze di Figaro) will be a studio production, presented by students in the festival’s VOICE Studio Program. This comic opera will be sung in Italian with English super titles. Rossini’s Barber of Seville or (Il barbiere di Siviglia), will feature Argentinian opera sensation Santiago Ballerini as Count Almaviva. The two-act comic opera will be sung in Italian with English super titles as a wonderful climax to three exciting weeks next August.

In addition, the fifth annual Festival will impress fans with a preview of another specially commissioned Savannah-centric opera, “Anna Hunter.” This is preceded by the now famous “Alice Ryley,” which has been drawing Savannah-area fans to showings since October 2015, when it debuted during National Opera Week. Michael Ching, who composed “Alice” will again put his masterful skills to work, bringing to life the music for “Anna.” This new comedic piece focuses on the remarkable work of Anna Hunter, who assembled a group of women – they came to be known as "The Seven Ladies" – to persuade bankers and businessmen to help them preserve Savannah's historic structures by portraying them as financial assets to the city.

In addition to the three operas, fans can expect the triumphant return of the ever-popular American Music Concert, Voices in Sacred Song, free masterclasses and much more.

“The 2017 Savannah VOICE Festival will be a phenomenal experience for fans who’ve been with us from the beginning and also our new friends. The events are always so well received by Savannah music lovers, and attendance has grown steadily since the festival’s inception. It just makes sense to expand the celebration to three full weeks in our fifth year. We’re growing and we couldn’t be happier about it!” said Maria Zouves, SVF co-founder and executive director.