Milly Forrest – St Michael & all Angels Church

Why is Milly Forrest so important?  This wonderful lyric soprano put on an interesting Church Hall performance of wide variety showing her talent at its fullest.  For a 25 year old fledgling singer she showed remarkable poise, flexibility and variation of sound.   

Yes, she can sing beautifully the usual Mozart roles and her Rossini, Bellini and Strauss were all easy on the ear.  The flexibility in her voice allows her to shine with dark and light colour as well as loud and soft tones.  She also has great attack where required even if there was a touch of stretch in the very upper register.  She has wonderful technique and no hint of a gear change and sang a remarkable Ombre Pallide from Handel’s Alcina.  This undoubtedly will be a role for her in the years to come.  But it was the singing of ‘Be Kind and Courteous’ from Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Cecilia McDowall’s Shakespeare songs that really shone through. 

She is deservedly understudying Barbarina at ENO in the spring and this talented artist seems to be a natural ENO Harewood Artist in the making.  She is currently working for Garsington on their Alvarez Young Artists programme as well as being a current Samling Young Artist.  The National Opera Studio should beckon.   

So why is Milly Forrest so important?  Because the UK has and continues to produce outstanding vocal talent and Milly Forrest is a testament to that and the future prospects of great British sopranos.