It’s arrival put me in mind of another breakthrough event at the Lyric, back In 1999, when “A View From the Bridge,” with music by William Bolcom and a libretto by Arnold Weinstein and playwright Arthur Miller, would unfold.Īn all-Black cast presents this coming-of-age spellbinder based on the harrowing memoir of the same name by New York Times columnist and TV commentator Charles M. This co-production of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” is shared with the Metropolitan Opera, where it sold out last fall, and the Los Angeles Opera, which plans a future run. Larger opera houses including the Lyric also took notice. That company’s premiere of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” came in 2019.
“Champion” premiered in 2013 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, which devotes itself to new work development. His first opera “Champion” tracked the arc of welterweight fighter Emile Griffith from world champ into the dementia commonly called boxer’s brain. There’s a chicken-plucking scene and a frat-house hazing, and the starring dramatic soprano plays an exhausted mother of five.īest of all, the lush, richly chromatic and, one might even say Romantic, music flows from the pen of the great jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who at 60 now has two operas under his belt and seems raring to go for more. Its dance scene is a show-stopper, but there’s not a toe-shoe in sight. It’s as grand as a grand opera can be, and yet it’s in English, and thoroughly American, requiring no knowledge of royal bloodlines or anything European. There are so many ways this show is a rarity that it’s hard to find a place to start. On the boards now through April 8 is a stunning success, a not-to-miss opera with a magnificent heart, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” It’s also available for streaming as long as you buy a ticket during the run. But what this determined company has accomplished since then is balm to the soul in an uneasy world. The Lyric Opera of Chicago has had its share of tough breaks in recent years, with ambitious projects felled by Covid including an international Wagner “Ring” festival that had been many years in the making.
(Todd Rosenberg photos) Review: “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Music by Terence Blanchard, libretto by Kasi Lemmons, at Lyric Opera of Chicago through April 8. Charles’ spirit angel (Brittany Renee) watches. In “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” Charles (Will Liverman, left) recalls how Uncle Paul (Reginald Smith, Jr.) shared home-grown wisdom when “Char’es-Baby” (Benjamin Preacely, center) was just a sprout.
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