Boston, MA (For Release 10.20.2021) — Yesterday, at a press conference hosted at Roxbury Community College, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and Odyssey Opera, two
of today’s leading innovators on the classical musical scene, unveiled a
new five-year initiative to elevate opera by Black composers. As Told By: History, Race, and Justice on the Opera Stage will
feature neglected repertoire, current masterpieces, and new operas by
Black American composers that depict vital figures of Black liberation
and Black thought across 250 years of history. Supported in part by a
grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, As Told By includes
New England and world premiere performances of five operas, along with
commercial recordings. The initiative is one of the most extensive and
ambitious presentations of opera by Black composers to take place in
Boston and in American opera.
According to Gil Rose, Founder and Artistic Director of both BMOP and Odyssey Opera, As Told By represents a new dimension of BMOP’s mission to celebrate new and underperformed music of the 20th and 21st centuries:
“We hope that elevating the voices of Black composers will build
momentum for a long-overdue shift to a more inclusive and representative
classical music canon.”
The initiative
celebrates the significant contributions made by Black artists and
composers to American operatic repertoire, and aims for a lasting impact
through its combination of performances and recordings. As Anthony Davis,
one of the composers featured in the series, noted: “Black composers
writing opera is nothing new, there’s a history there, and I’m honored
to be part of that history.” Similarly, composer Jonathan Bailey Holland, whose opera The Bridge will
receive its world premiere in 2026 as the fifth opera in the series,
commented, “Especially after hearing about the history of the other
works that are a part of this collection, and the sparse performance
history that there’s been, it feels even more of an honor to be a part.”
As Told By is
designed not just to elevate the voices of Black composers but to
celebrate contemporary Black creativity in Boston and nationally. Says
Rose: “This project constitutes the best possible platform on which to
forge relationships with Black-led organizations, Black artists, and
communities. Just as we hope to build a more inclusive canon through As Told By, this
initiative marks the start of a commitment to build a more inclusive
organization—one whose audiences, partners, and supporters see
themselves and their interests reflected in our programming and our
work.”
BMOP has been applauded for a 25-year
commitment to resurrecting forgotten works and casting a spotlight on
rarely performed composers. “Much of the most interesting work is being
done by groups led by the conductor Gil Rose, whose Boston Modern
Orchestra Project continues to shine in overlooked music.” (Gramophone). According to The Wall Street Journal, “BMOP
has long been neutral ground in contemporary music’s style wars,
offering itself as a safe haven for, and champion of, virtually every
ism, and every genre- and era- mixing hybrid that composers’
imaginations have wrought.”
Odyssey Opera, who will partner with BMOP in the production of each performance, has been praised by the New York Times as
“one of the nation’s most intriguing opera companies.” Anchored by a
commitment to eclectic, adventurous programming that champions new or
forgotten works beyond the familiar, Odyssey Opera has been hailed for
“consistently top-drawer performances of rarely mounted yet worthy
operatic repertoire” (American Record Guide).
Performances + Recordings
Rose
notes, “These five exceptional works span eight decades, and were
selected to showcase a wide variety of dramatic and musical styles. They
offer an exciting cross-section of the dynamic landscape of modern and
contemporary opera.” From 2022 to 2026, BMOP will present concert,
semi-staged, or staged performances, with production partner Odyssey
Opera collaborating on semi- and fully-staged productions.
The series begins with a performance of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis’s (b.1951) seminal opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986) on
June 17, 2022, at Boston’s Strand Theatre, a short distance from the
house where Malcolm X lived in his teenage years in Roxbury.
Bass-baritone Davóne Tines, Musical America’s 2021
Vocalist of the Year, appears in the titular role. Sadly, Davis’
masterwork, though originally recorded, is no longer available on a
commercial label. Davis is now working on a revision of this seminal
American opera, and his updated thoughts on this opera will be reflected
on BMOP/sound’s release.
BMOP’s performance of Guggenheim Fellow Nkeiru Okoye’s (b.1972) Harriet Tubman (libretto by Okoye; first performance 2014) will mark the premiere of the full orchestra version of the composer’s first opera. William Grant Still’s (1895-1978) Troubled Island (libretto by Langston Hughes; first performance 1949), the
first opera by a Black composer to be performed at a major American
opera company, is a depiction of Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758–1806) and
his leadership in the Haitian revolution. BMOP will partner with New
York City Opera, the company that produced the work’s premiere, for a 75th anniversary performance in 2024. Ulysses Kay (1917-1995), the first African American to win the Rome Prize, considered his opera Frederick Douglass (libretto
by Donald Dorr; first performance 1991) his magnum opus, and yet it has
not been performed in full since its premiere, and has not been
recorded. Concluding the series is the world premiere of a BMOP
commission, The Bridge,by Boston-based composer Jonathan Bailey Holland (b.1974).
An opera about Martin Luther King Jr.’s years in Boston, the narrative
is framed by the journey to Selma and the crossing of the Edmund Pettus
Bridge.
Educational Programming
To complement these performances and recordings, BMOP is partnering with the Boston-based, Black-led chamber music ensemble Castle of Our Skins to
bring an extensive suite of education programs to students across
Boston. These varied programs will engage students with the history
behind the operas and guide them through the process of creating
companion works of art such as film, musical anthems, and modern-day
spirituals. By engaging students and their families with Black
creativity in opera through these programs, BMOP and Castle of our Skins
will help to increase inclusion of Black composers not only in concert
repertoire, but in arts education as well. Castle of Our Skins’ Artistic and Executive Director Ashleigh Gordon says,
“As a concert and education series dedicated to celebrating Black
artistry through music, this collaboration with BMOP is right up our
alley. Over the next five years, we look forward to working closely with
different educational partners throughout Boston.”
Advisory Council
“This
initiative’s success is dependent on our ability to listen—both to the
music and more importantly to Black communities in Boston,” explains
Rose. Committed to an initiative built on the input from and support of
the Black community, As Told By is being guided by an
Advisory Council comprised of 16 members of Black communities and
communities of color across Boston, with representation from different
neighborhoods and sectors, including education, youth development, arts,
civic engagement, and business. The Advisory Council serves as a
sounding board throughout the initiative, ensuring that this multi-year
collaborative and creative experience has meaningful impact for Boston
audiences and Black communities as well as the American opera landscape.
About BMOP The
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) is the premier orchestra in the
United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and
recording music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A unique
institution of crucial artistic importance to today’s musical world,
BMOP exists to disseminate exceptional orchestral music of the present
and recent past via performances and recordings of the highest caliber.
Founded by Artistic Director Gil Rose in 1996, BMOP has championed
composers whose careers span nine decades.
Each
season, Rose brings BMOP’s award-winning orchestra, renowned soloists,
and influential composers to the stage of New England Conservatory’s
historic Jordan Hall in a series that offers orchestral programming of
unrivaled eclecticism. Musical America’s 2016 Ensemble of the Year, BMOP was awarded the 2021 Special Achievement Award from Gramophone Magazine as “an organization that has championed American music of the 20th and 21st century
with passion and panache.” The musicians of BMOP are consistently
lauded for the energy, imagination, and passion with which they infuse
the music of the present era. For more information, please visit BMOP.org.
About BMOP/sound
BMOP/sound,
BMOP’s independent record label, was created in 2008 to provide a
platform for BMOP’s extensive archive of music, as well as to provide
widespread, top-quality, permanent access to both classics of the 20th
century and the music of today’s most innovative composers. BMOP/sound
has garnered praise from the national and international press. It is the
recipient of a 2020 Grammy Award for Tobias Picker: Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as eight Grammy Award nominations, and its releases have appeared on the year-end “Best of” lists of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, American Record Guide, DownBeat,
WBUR, NewMusicBox, and others. Admired, praised, and sought after by
artists, presenters, critics, and audiophiles, BMOP and BMOP/sound are
uniquely positioned to redefine the new music concert and recording
experience. Launched in 2019, BMOP's digital radio station, BMOP/radio, streams BMOP/sound's entire catalog and airs special programming. BMOPsound.org
About Odyssey Opera
Founded
in 2013 by artistic director/conductor Gil Rose, Odyssey Opera presents
adventurous and eclectic works that affirm opera as a powerful
expression of the human experience. Its world-class artists perform the
operatic repertoire from its historic beginnings through lesser-known
masterpieces to contemporary new works and commissions in varied formats
and venues. Odyssey Opera takes its audience on a journey to places
they’ve never been before. odysseyopera.org
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Founded
in 1969, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation seeks to strengthen, promote,
and defend the centrality of the humanities and the arts to human
flourishing and to the wellbeing of diverse, fair, and democratic
societies. To this end, its core programs support exemplary and
inspiring institutions of higher education and culture. For more
information, visit www.mellon.org. |
No comments:
Post a Comment