The documentary was organized by Okun, his wife Rosemary, Holdridge and his wife, Elisa, who helped select the opera singers.
Kenneth Shapiro, known for his role as director of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” along with a multitude of award-winning shows that have garnered Primetime Emmys, Grammys, and Academy Awards, is also a 22-time Emmy award winner and nominee. He was brought on board to direct the Denver project. “Milt Okun and I actually met at the Los Angeles opera,” Shapiro said. “I was there directing an opera video and Milt was a board member for the LA Opera and liked the work I was doing, had some ideas of some projects that he was thinking of, one of which was doing this John Denver documentary. He wanted to put together an album and CD basically, for the family after John’s death and so that’s how I got involved.”
“Great Voices Sing John Denver” is a compilation of 15 opera singers performing Denver’s music with an orchestra and was screened Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
“Lee [Holdridge] always felt that John’s music could hold up so well to orchestration and so this was a way of connecting two of Milt’s favorite things, which was love of opera and love of orchestra,” Shapiro said. “There’s so much information about John’s life because I was one of the only people that really had never known John, and worked with him,” Shapiro said. “I had worked on other productions that he performed over the years, but I never worked one-on-one with him. For me, it was learning about the whole story beyond what I heard and just the history of his life. I’m still learning about his life. I’m still investigating and still researching pieces. It’s like this film still has a life and I’m trying to add another chapter to it.”
Shapiro alluded that there may be an addendum coming to the film in the future. He said that the more he is involved in this project, the more information comes his way. “With some of the knowledge I’m gaining, especially when we do these screenings, I get a lot of questions that people ask about John’s life and certain parts of his performances that we don’t include in the film. So, we’re considering adding a new chapter that will include some of those features,” Shapiro said.
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