a black composer finally arrives at the metropolitan opera

Here's to Terence Blanchard, a New Orleanian genius who broke a massive barrier! It took the Metropolitan Opera 138 years to perform an opera by a Black composer. The libretto, written by American filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, is based on the memoir of Charles Blow, a columnist for the New York Times. It's been done since Monday, with 'Fire shut up in my bones', a contemporary and flamboyant work, with jazz and blues accents, by Terence Blanchard, renowned trumpeter famous for having composed the soundtracks of many Spike Lee films. In 138 years of existence and despite great African-American composers like William Grant Still, the prestigious institution had never shown one of their operas, unlike other stages in the United States. After a year and a half of the curtain lowered because of the coronavirus, the Metropolitan Opera in New York found the public this Monday evening for a historic first which resounded as far as Harlem: a work composed by a black musician, the trumpeter Terence Blanchard.

A black composer finally arrives at the metropolitan opera