![\"Summer-Kings\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Summer-Kings.jpg\")
<\/a>Even by opera-star standards, bass Kenneth Kellogg gets around. In his travels, he\u2019s sung Colline in\u00a0La Boh\u00e8me<\/em>\u00a0and Judge Turpin in\u00a0Sweeney Todd<\/em>\u00a0at San Francisco Opera; he was Il Re in\u00a0Aida<\/em>\u00a0in Atlanta, and at Washington National Opera he was Angelotti in\u00a0Tosca<\/em>.<\/p>\nOn May 8, he\u2019ll appear at Merrill Auditorium in the world premiere of\u00a0The Summer King<\/em>, an original opera by University of Southern Maine music professor Daniel Sonenberg, 43.\u00a0The Summer King<\/em>\u00a0tells the tragic story of Negro League baseball star Josh Gibson. Gibson\u2019s untimely death in 1947 just 3 months before Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier kept him from the fame and recognition he almost would surely have received.<\/p>\n What is your favorite line in\u00a0The Summer King?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s in Sam\u2019s aria which comes as he\u2019s holding Joshua after he\u2019s taken his last breath. He describes Joshua as \u201ca Joshua without God\u2019s invitation, never allowed to cross the Jordan River.\u201d This speaks volumes to Gibson\u2019s importance to the Negro League players\u2026 Unlike the Biblical Joshua, whom God parted the Jordan River for, Joshua Gibson wasn\u2019t allowed to [cross into] the big leagues.<\/p>\n Tell us about getting into character. Did Gibson really have a friend named Sam?<\/strong><\/p>\n From my research Gibson was\u00a0the best<\/em>\u00a0player to play the game of baseball. The Babe Ruth of the Negro Leagues or Babe Ruth was the Joshua Gibson of the big league, depending on your frame of reference. My surprise was that I never heard of him. Yes, he had a friend named Sam. Sam Howard Bankhead played in the Negro Leagues and with the Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo along with Satchel Paige and Joshua Gibson.<\/p>\n Have you ever been here before?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been to Maine but not officially. I was doing a show in sunny Florida, and Daniel wanted me come to Maine to sing Sam\u2019s aria and to participate on a panel discussion at the university. So I flew up to be part of the panel and I spent less than 24 hours here. I didn\u2019t even bring a coat. I had to run from car to building because it was so cold here. From what I was able to see in the blur, I want to visit the coast, some of the islands, and eat as much lobster and clams as my stomach can stomach.<\/p>\n Mezzo-soprano Lori-Kaye Miller plays Josh Gibson\u2019s wife, Grace.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite line I sing is toward the end of the opera when Grace argues with Josh before her aria and asks him, \u201cWhat kind of King has to leave home to reign?\u201d For some reason, that line means so many different things to me and maybe even to Grace at that time.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my childhood, my Dad talked about Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, but never anything about Josh Gibson.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 2014
\nEven by opera-star standards, bass Kenneth Kellogg gets around. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82],"class_list":["post-9722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-may-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9722"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9726,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9722\/revisions\/9726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}