By Audrey J. Bernard
Monday night, September 27, 2021, will go down in infamy as in The Metropolitan Opera’s 138-year history that a Black composer debut an opera about Black people. The multiple Grammy-winning musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up In My Bones” not only was the Opening Night program of the 2021-22 season, it was also the first time that the Met had opened a season with a work by a living composer since 1966. This was a grand night at the opera all around with guests dressed to impress in chic black tie attire as they strolled about the fountain outside Lincoln Center before entering the beautiful opera house.
The bar was set high and Blanchard’s opera soared. The celebrated composer leaped over all barriers to see his narrative come to fruition. And he left no one out. While nearly 4,000 people had tickets to watch the performance at Lincoln Center, hundreds were able to catch a free livestream of the event at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem and Times Square.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin had the distinction of conducting Blanchard’s operatic adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir. The masterwork, which featured a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, tells a tragic and reflective story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown—two of the creators of the Met’s sensational recent production of Porgy and Bess—co-direct this new staging. Brown, who is also the production’s choreographer, becomes the first Black director to create a mainstage Met production. Baritone Will Liverman, one of opera’s most exciting young artists, stars as Charles, alongside soprano Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta, soprano Latonia Moore as Billie, and Walter Russell III as Char’es-Baby.
Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, which helped underwrite “Fire” with a $1.25 million grant, said the opera was a reminder of the importance of presenting a diverse array of artists. The foundation is also supporting the Met premiere of Anthony Davis’s “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” in 2023. “What we saw Monday night is what happens in America when diversity is unleashed, when we see creativity that we’ve not been able to see,” Walker said. “If opera is to thrive in the future as an art form in America, productions like this can’t be exceptions outside the mainstream canon.”
Blanchard has high hopes that this event will bring more people to the stage. “These young, African American singers are here. They’re just not being covered,” Blanchard said.
SYNOPSIS: The opera takes place in and around the small and poor town of Gibsland, in northwestern Louisiana, as well as at Blow’s alma mater, Grambling State University. The time ranges from Charles’s childhood in the 1970s to his adulthood in the 1990s.
ASSETS: Terence Blanchard (b. 1962) is a celebrated composer whose many works express his roots in jazz but defy further categorization. A prolific creator in a wide variety of forms and genres, he is especially celebrated for his close collaboration with director Spike Lee and his accomplishments as an award-winning composer of more than 60 film scores. Charles M. Blow (b. 1970) is a noted journalist and commentator. He is a regularly featured op-ed columnist for The New York Times and an anchor for the Black News Channel. The libretto for “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” marks the first foray into opera for Kasi Lemmons (b. 1961), a noted writer, actress, and director.
CREATIVE TEAM: Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Directors: James Robinson, Camille A. Brown. Set Designer: Allen Moyer. Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell. Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind. Projection Designer: Greg Emetaz. Choreographer: Camille A. Brown.
CREDITS: Baritone Will Liverman, one of opera’s most exciting young artists, stars as Charles, alongside soprano Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta, soprano Latonia Moore as Billie, and Walter Russell III as Char’es-Baby. (Photos: Ken Howard for the Met)
