“While there is a jazz quartet in each one of them, that is not the main focal point,” Blanchard said. He melds the sounds of that style and his immersion in the music of the Black church as a child with his love of classical music and opera. Louis originally wanted a jazz opera, what he has produced in his first two works in the form far transcend the jazz realm. “It’s just amazing.”Īlthough Opera Theatre of St. “I’m almost indescribably proud of this opera and what Terence was able to accomplish,” she said. The first time she heard a performance of the opera’s first aria featuring Blanchard’s music fused with her words, she burst into tears.
He gave her some pointers and spoke of what he called the “freedom of opera.” She had a two-hour lunch with Robinson, who is serving as co-director of Lyric’s production. To produce the libretto, the two approached Kasi Lemmons, a friend of Blanchard who has served as the director and screenwriter for such films as “Eve’s Bayou” and “Harriet.” She had a “secret love” of opera and even put writing a libretto on her bucket list.īut a libretto is very different than a screenplay. The idea to adapt Blow’s memoir came from the composer’s wife and agent, Robin Burgess, who read it and was moved by it. The multi-Grammy Award winning Blanchard has written an array of jazz works and has been nominated for two Academy Awards for his film scores (“Da 5 Bloods,” “BlacKkKlansman”), but he called moving into the realm of opera a “huge leap” because of the need to write for voice, something he had not done before.īlanchard’s first opera, “Champion,” debuted in 2013, and based on its success, Opera Theatre St. “I was like, ‘Do you have the right person?’ And we just kind of proceeded from there.” “I leaned across the table to smell his breath,” Blanchard said. The company’s artistic director James Robinson met with the jazz musician in New York and put the idea to him. He recalled a conversation in which Blanchard discussed his father’s love of opera, and Bradford recommended the trumpeter as a possible composer. Louis considered producing a jazz opera, they consulted Gene Dobbs Bradford, then head of Jazz St. But when officials at the Opera Theatre of St. But, overall, it is a memory that will stay with me for a long, long time-to be part of that run that was historic on so many levels.”īlanchard had never considered writing an opera. Liverman, who took part in the Ryan Opera Center, Lyric’s training arm, in 2012-15, is returning to the company to star as Charles, reprising the central role that he also sang in the Metropolitan Opera’s production.
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