Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer’s “Champion” made its Met Opera premiere on April 10, 2023 to a nearly sold-out crowd. Just entering the main lobby, you were met with a 10-minute line to pick up tickets. But most importantly, you could feel the buzz in the space, a massive, diverse audience, ready to take in what is undeniably a major {…}
This March, Lincoln Center is set to do its first cross-campus exploration of an artist. Entitled “See Me As I Am: Lincoln Center’s Year-Long Celebration of Terence Blanchard,” the event will see seven organizations, including Film at Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and The New York Public Library {…}
Portland Opera has announced its 2022-23 season. The season kicks off with Bizet’s “Carmen,” which will star Maya Lahyani, Matthew Pearce, Richard Ollarsaba, and Ariana Wehr. Michael Ellis Ingram conducts a production directed by Denyce Graves. Performance Dates: Nov. 5 & 13, 2022 Kamala Sankaram’s “Thumbprint” will premiere with Maya Kherani, Indira Mahajan, Alok Kumar, Omar, Najmi, and Samina Aslam {…}
(Credit: Henry Adebonojo) The Metropolitan Opera has announced that it will stage Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer’s opera “Champion” in April 2023. The announcement comes on the heels of a very successful run of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” which opened the company’s 2021-22 season. “Champion” is based on the life of African American boxer Emile Griffith. The opera {…}
On Sept. 27, the Metropolitan Opera will make history presenting “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” It will be the first time the company presents an opera composed by a black composer – that composer is Terence Blanchard. Talking about the historical moment to the Washington Post the composer said, “It’s a bit overwhelming. Once you get into the rehearsal {…}
The Metropolitan Opera announced its free simulcast of the opening night and season- launching performance of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” The simulcast will take place Monday, Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m. ET in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park. There will be nearly 1,700 seats available at Marcus Garvey Park with approximately 2,000 seats also available in Times {…}
(Credit: Ticanda Thompson) 12-year-old, Caleb Thompson will understudy the role of “Char’es Baby” in Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in my Bones” at the Metropolitan Opera during the 2021-22 season. Thompson is a voice student at Stax Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. Here, he has also been a part of an opera class that started after the cancelation of Opera Memphis’s {…}
Boston Lyric Opera has announced the revamped 2020-21 season. The company plans to reschedule productions of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and Blanchard and Cristofer’s Jazz opera “Champion” for the 2021-22 season while Humperdinck’s “Hansel und Gretel” will be postponed for a future date. Instead, BLO will offer operatic content through outdoor performances in the fall 2020 and spring 2021, as well {…}
Terence Blanchard is one of the most versatile musicians in the world. Born on March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, Louisiana as an only child, his father Joseph Oliver Blanchard was a part-time opera singer. The young Terence began playing piano at five and then started on trump at age eight. He was a close friend of Wynton Marsalis from {…}
(Credit: Eric Woolsey) On June 15, 2019, Terence Blanchard’s opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” premiered in full at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Described by the composer as “opera in jazz,” the work will be the first opera by a Black composer ever staged at the Metropolitan Opera. The libretto by Kasi Lemmons is based on the memoir {…}
(Credit: Suzanne Vinnik / Dario Acosta) This weekend’s recommendations are full of variety of repertory spread across the U.S. including two essential world premieres and the performance of a rare work. All of them feature tremendous star power. Here are the five operas that we recommend for your Father’s Day celebration (in alphabetical order by company). The Marriage of Figaro {…}