[ad_1]
After the critical and box office success of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” this fall, First work by a Black composer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera, the company announced on Tuesday that it will stage its previous opera “Champion” next season.
Typically, opera seasons are scheduled five years or more in advance in a global game of Tetris with artists’ schedules. But the Met moved with unusual speed to follow up with “Fire,” bringing “Champion” to the stage in April 2023; The company’s managing director, Peter Gelb, said production came together “on a dime.”
“Part of the future sustainability of the Met relies on our ability to make changes,” he added. We want opera to exist in the world we live in.”
Encouraged by the experience of bringing “Fire” to the Met stage, Blanchard welcomed the news. “Going through this process with this level of talent is a serious dope, dude,” he said in an interview. “Experiencing it once makes you want to experience it again.”
A so-called opera in jazz, “Champion” premiered in 2013 Louis Opera Theatre, in a production of James Robinson who will travel to New York. (The company also premiered “Fire” in 2019, and Robinson later co-directed with Camille A. Brown at the Met.) The film is based on the life of gay boxer Emile Griffith. His opponent, Benny Paret, before the 1962 championship game that led to Paret’s death. “I killed a man and the world forgives me,” he says in the libretto by Michael Cristofer. “I love a man and the world wants to kill me.”
“Emile Griffith never wanted to be a world champion fighter,” Tony-winning playwright Cristofer said in a statement. “He wanted to play baseball. He wanted to make a hat. And most of all he wanted to sing. He would be very, very happy to bring the story of forgiveness and redemption to the Met, to be told from this great stage.”
The work depicts Griffith at different stages of his life. At the Met, Ryan Speedo Green will voice his younger self, featured in “Fire” and other productions this fall; Eric Owens will portray him as an old man. Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Met’s music director, who also manages “Fire”, will direct.
“Fire” was a victory for the Met in many ways. happened warmly received by critics and sold his last four performances. Blanchard was asked to write a new opera for the company, but meanwhile, Gelb said the fast-paced production of “Champion” “followed the success of ‘Fire’.”
st. Between his Louis and New York runs, Blanchard revised “Fire” and continued to modify it as he learned the characteristics of the sound of the enormous Met auditorium during rehearsals. He said he plans to do the same for his first opera, “Champion” – “too many shots in the dark,” he said, adding that he’s since learned a lot more about writing for voice and wants to revisit the score. Mind after “fire”. Cristofer’s libretto and Robinson’s productions will also undergo changes.
“The story itself contains more drama than ‘Fire’,” Blanchard said. “I predict it will be a very dramatic production, but we want to cut some scenes and I want to go in and look for where I can add the chorus.”
Blanchard is particularly looking forward to reuniting with Nézet-Séguin. “Man, he got it,” he said of the conductor. “Intelligent and passionate about it.”
With “Champion” and “Fire,” the Met prepares to present corporate premieres of operas by Black composers for three seasons in a row. (Anthony Davis’ 1986 “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X”, Scheduled for fall 2023.) When asked what this predicts for the coming years, Gelb said, “This is the way of the future.”
Blanchard said this line was a “major shift” after neglecting Black composers for nearly 140 years. However, he added, “it’s not just about African Americans.”
“People from all walks of life,” he said. “We’ll have to see how it all turns out, but I don’t want to be a coin. I wanted ‘Fire’ to be the production that opens doors for everyone. And the talent is there.”
[ad_2]
Source link