Xavier University of Louisiana XULA Digital Commons

Festival of Scholars

2021

Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A New Era in

Sakinah A. Davis Xavier University of Louisiana

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xula_fos

Recommended Citation Davis, Sakinah A., "Fire Shut Up in My Bones: A New Era in Opera" (2021). Festival of Scholars. 7. https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xula_fos/7

This Book is brought to you for free and open access by XULA Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Festival of Scholars by an authorized administrator of XULA Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fire Shut Up in My Bones:

A New Era in Opera So What Exactly is Opera?

• A dramatic work combining multiple elements including music, theater, (dance) and instrumental ensemble (ex: orchestra) • “Opera” all over the world, but the term is usually reserved for Western European art music • Opera (music, often classical) vs. musical theater (theater, often incorporates popular styles) • Opera – focus on music and musicians, often classical • Musical theater – focus on theater, often incorporates popular styles Why Don’t People Go to the Opera?

• Opera audiences have diminished over the last 50-60 years due to:

• Expensive tickets • Increased popularity and interest in pop/commercial artists and styles over classical artists and styles • Lack of relevance and connection to today’s audiences (most performed are at least 100 years old)

• Lack of representation of marginalized groups (race/ethnicity, sexuality, religion, etc.) Why Should We Go to the Opera?

• An art form that combines different means of expression in a big way

• Amazing musicians (composers, singers, instrumentalists)

• Exposure to different languages

• Focus on the human experience (joy, pain, love, loss, etc.) Historical Significance of Fire Shut Up in My Bones

• the Metropolitan opera’s first performance of an opera by a Black composer • Fits within a new trend of opera by Black composers about real, lived Black experiences featuring Black performers • Black music • Black stories and writers The Opera

Image retrieved from Jazz St. Louis website: https://jazzstl.org/the-beat/fire-shut-up-in-my-bones-gives-st-louis-a-reason-to-be- proud/ Let’s Listen!

Highlights (trailer) Excerpt of end of Act 1, featuring Davóne Tines as adult Charles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVyGjReLDHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAsbHdLqYjc Premise

Fire Shut Up in My Bones is the 2014 memoir by NY Times journalist and columnist Charles Blow, telling the story of his coming-of-age as a young Black man in rural Northern Louisiana and how he has to struggle to deal with childhood abuse.

New Orleans jazz composer, , chose this memoir as the subject of his second opera. Theme: Intersectionality

The intersection of these identities impact Blow’s development and choices, including how he navigates his environment, wrestles with the effects of his cousin’s abuse, and ultimately learns to move forward and embrace himself for who he is. There are also important themes of family, hope and redemption.

Hope and Redemption - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuKNfxJWJp0 Librettist Profile

• Kasi Lemmons, b. 1961 St. Louis, MO • Actress, and award-winning film director and writer (Eve’s Bayou; Harriet) • 1st opera: Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Image retrieved from Produced By Conference Website: https://producedbyconference.com/New-York/team-member/kasi-lemmons/ Composer Profile

• Terence Blanchard, b. 1962 New Orleans • Grammy-Award winning jazz trumpeter, arranger and composer • Oscar-nominated film composer, esp. w/ Spike Lee “Joints” (BlacKkKlansman, most recently Da 5 Bloods) • Blanchard on opera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-G- bbFJBzQ • 1st opera – Champion: An Opera in Jazz – based on life of pro-boxer ; premiered 2013 (also with OTSL) Image retrieved from LA Philharmonic Website: https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/artists/690/terence- blanchard Musical Characteristics: An “Opera in Jazz”

“…it is not a “jazz opera” in the sense that the musical language is drawn exclusively from jazz. Instead, Blanchard folds vernacular passages…into an orchestral tapestry…” - Michigan Opera Theater Review

“I didn’t want people to show up to the performance thinking that there was going to be a jazz band swinging at every moment from beginning to the end of the piece,” he said. “I tried to use that language as a tool, just like any other tool the composer would have his at his disposal.” – Terrence Blanchard

“Opera in jazz” illuminates the composer’s sound world… and the African American cultural milieu An Opera in Jazz: Musical Characteristics

Champion Fire Shut Up In My Bones • Orchestration: chamber orchestra w/ jazz quartet • Orchestration: (full) orchestra w/ jazz • Musical influences ensemble • blues • Musical influences • swing • contemporary/avant-garde jazz • blues • Latin jazz • gospel

• R&B

• stepping (“hypnotic chant-dance”)

• swing

• contemporary/avant-garde jazz Why This Opera?

• Relevance to the current age • Demand for Representation of BIPOC • classical music • opera • Potential to bring together multiple communities Historic Significance of Blanchard as an Operatic Composer

• Opera Composers of Color from New Orleans • Edmond Dédé

• African-American Composer “Firsts” in Opera • Scott Joplin (Treemonisha 1911, premiered 1972)

• William Grant Still (Troubled Island 1949) Appealing to Audiences

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFx9irmyhVs – Davóne Tines

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTRzqCxSx0&t=133s – Terence Blanchard Opera Workshop at Xavier

• Xavier’s Opera Workshop has been around for almost 90 years! • In addition to traditional opera, we also: XULA production of Aida, 1950 • Produce musical theater works • Perform with community organizations • Push the envelope and promote works by Black composers like Terence Blanchard and Roger Dickerson (his teacher at NOCCA) Sources: Text

• Blow, Charles M. Fire Shut Up in My Bones: a memoir. Mariner Publishers: September 2014.

• Miller, Sarah Bryan. “Opera Review: ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Tells a Gritty Story in Jazz”. St. Louis Post-Dispatch: June 16, 2019. https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/culture-club/opera- review-fire-shut-up-in-my-bones-tells-a-gritty-story-in-jazz/article_8d04335a- 670e-5bc9-821d-c3dc1f391288.html • Stryker, Mark. “Terence Blanchard’s “Champion”: Defining an “Opera in Jazz”. Michigan Opera Theatre Opera Blog: March 5, 2020. https://michiganopera.org/terence- blanchards-champion-defining-an-opera-in-jazz/ • Tommasini, Anthony. “Review: The Wrenching ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ Becomes an Opera”. New York Times: June 16, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/16/arts/music/fire-shut-up-in-my-bones- opera-review.html Sources: Video

• ”Charles Blow on Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Miami Book Fair”; Dec 10, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuKNfxJWJp0

• “Terence Blanchard’s Champion: an Opera in Jazz”; October 19, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTRzqCxSx0&t=133s

• Fire Shut Up in My Bones (dress rehearsal footage of world premiere, courtesy of Opera Theater St. Louis); June 2019.

OTSL Promotional Materials • ”The Story Behind Fire Shut Up in My Bones”; February 20, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-G- bbFJBzQ • ”Highlights from ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’”; June 18, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVyGjReLDHE • ”Fire Shut Up in My Bones @ Opera Theatre of St. Louis”; June 20, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAsbHdLqYjc • “See Fire Shut Up in My Bones at OTSL!”; April 1, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMmb1NbVcik • ”Secrets Revealed in The New Opera: Fire Shut Up in My Bones”; June 20, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFx9irmyhVs