The cast, with powerful portrayals of Griffith by baritones Brian Major and Markel Reed (as a younger Emile Griffith), and mezzo-soprano Tichina Vaughn as his mother, Emelda Griffith, delivers not only superb voicing but believable period characters, which includes streetwise profanity and direct language. With handclapping, syncopated rhythms, a hint of blues and Bessie Smith, soft jazz orchestral ballads, and a West Side Story-like dance number, the musical score seamlessly fuses the opera and jazz styles.

What I’m doing is taking how jazz harmony moves and doing the same thing.”īlanchard’s musical adaptation offers a pallet of jazz genres, interpreting the rise and fall of the antihero boxer. If Puccini wrote a scene, he could write it based on one harmonic color, even though he would use a lot of different harmonies in it. His approach to the composition was to enter the period of time in the 1960s/’70s with its racial conflicts, segregation, and fusing the desperate circumstances of this individual with current societal norms, “I’m trying to do what Puccini did – use the colors and the culture and the folklore of the day to tell a story. Having read the following quote by Griffith, “I killed a man, and the world forgives me I love a man and the world wants to kill me,” Blanchard was drawn to the profound message and started writing the musical score. Trumpeter, composer (including movie scores), and bandleader of E- Collective, createsĪn orchestral arrangement that wraps around the intense storyline. Griffith’s later recognition of his own bisexuality, in an unaccepting society, leads to a destructive downward spiral as he searches for forgiveness.Īn equally compelling musical score written by multi-Grammy Award-winner Terence Blanchard, renowned jazz

Champion: An Opera in Jazz is no exception, incorporating the subject of a renowned boxer (1960s welterweight champion Emile Griffith) whose life is torn apart by the killing of an opponent in the ring.

Ground and offering new ways to enhance the opera-going experience.Īlways pursuing productions on the edge of popular themes, Boston Lyric Opera has covered topics including sexual ambiguity, gender bias, racial prejudice, and future dystopian society in its contemporary operatic plots. Standing away from popular themes,īLO’s programming has remained faithful to the tradition of trailblazing new Longest-lived opera company in New England.

Season, Boston Lyric Opera is the largest and

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