(Credit: Marty Sohl) The Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-24 season unfurled a tapestry of music, history, and Afrofuturistic magical realism with Broadway producer Robert O’Hara’s “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” composed by Anthony Davis, to a libretto by Thulani Davis, based on a story by Christopher Davis. The Met, traditionally a bastion of opera’s classic repertoire, transformed into a {…}
Photo credit: Zenith Richards, Paola Kudacki, Met Opera “Opera Evolved” is National Sawdust and the Metropolitan Opera’s new programming partnership. Throughout the 2023-24 season, National Sawdust will showcase conversations with composers and artists that focus on the contemporary operas featured at the Met this season. They will highlight and explore the ways opera is evolving today and discuss the inner-workings {…}
OPERA America Onstage has announced its 2023-24 season with a lineup of big name artists Terence Blanchard, Anthony Davis, Samantha Hankey, and Jake Heggie are just a few of the luminaries included in this year’s season. Audiences can either attend events in-person at OPERA America’s National Opera Center in New York, or watch the free livestreams. Here’s what OPERA America {…}
The Berkshire Opera Festival has announced its 2023 season. The season includes Puccini’s “La Bohème” at Colonial Theater. The cast will include Whitney Morrison, Yongzhao Yu, Benjamin Taylor, Veronique Filloux, Evan Lazdowski, Ethan Vincent, and James Demler. Brian Garman conducts the production by Jonathon Loy. In a statement, Loy said, “This will be a production with a fresh take that {…}
Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Opera Project have unveiled the full cast for their production of “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.” The Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis opera, which will be performed at The Strand, a few blocks away from Malcolm X’s childhood home” will be presented as part of the company’s five-part series “As Told {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced plans to perform Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis’ “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” during the 2023-24 season. The opera will feature the directing debut of Robert O’Hara, making him the second Black director in Met history. Audiences will see Will Liverman in the title role alongside Leah Hawkins as Louise and Malcolm’s {…}
Tulsa Opera is set to commemorate the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre on May 1, 2021. The showcase, which is entitled “Greenwood Overcomes,” will feature songs and arias by living Black composers, performed by Black opera artists. The concert will feature four Tulsa Opera-commissioned world premieres by such composers as David Bontemps, Anthony Davis, Stewart Goodyear, Nkeiru Okoye, and {…}
Anthony Davis is one of the most prominent modern-day composers in the world. Renowned for a wide range of music, he has also cemented himself as a major creator of operas with just over half a dozen works to date, several of them modern classics. So for this week’s quiz, we take stock of his operatic repertory. We will provide {…}
The American Lyric Theater has announced a free Opera Writers Symposium scheduled between Feb. 27- April 24, 2021. The course aims to offer artists an opportunity to check out the American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program. The Symposium is open to all artists in all genres of music and literature. Artists with no previous experience in opera are encouraged {…}
Manhattan School of Music, one of the premier music schools in the United States, announced a roster of 24 Black artists ranging from instrumentalists to educators, authors, activists, composers, and singers to become Artists Scholars. The illustrious roster includes Pulitzer Prize winning composer Anthony Davis, classical pianist Lara Downes, and novelist Tayari Jones. The Artists Scholars will take part in {…}
On October 18 at 4:00 p.m. CT, The Lied Society will broadcast the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning composer Anthony Davis’ “We Call the Roll,” a work commissioned by the Society in partnership with the Schubert Club. The broadcast will stream live on The Lied Society’s website and hosted by Trilloquy podcast host Garrett McQueen. Composer Davis is known {…}