Toledo Opera Will Present Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson's BLUE

In February, 2022, Toledo Opera will produce Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson's Blue, Toledo Blade reports.

As BroadwayWorld recently reported, The Music Critics Association of North America gave the 2020 Award for Best New Opera to Tesori and Thompson for Blue.

Blue was commissioned and given its world premiere by The Glimmerglass Festival in July 2019. It was scheduled for performances this spring and summer at such prestigious institutions as the Kennedy Center (Washington National Opera) in March, Lyric Opera of Chicago in June, and Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in July-but all of these have been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Blue has been rescheduled for performances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (January 15-23, 2021), and Minnesota Opera will present it February 13-21, 2021.

The opera focuses on an African-American couple living in Harlem, filled with hope and fear for their activist teenage son. The mother worries for his future; the father, while preparing his son for the realities of 21st century America, wrestles with his own identity as a police officer, a "Black man in blue." When tragedy strikes, the grief-stricken parents seek answers and support from their church and community. Urgent and heartbreaking, Blue examines the joys and fears of an African-American couple trying to raise and protect their son in a dangerously polarized world. In its exploration of race, violence, and forgiveness, Blue places timely issues at the forefront of modern opera and invites audiences to the emotional epicenter of their impact.

Toledo Opera plans to develop a suite of public programming around Blue that centers the experiences of Toledoans of color, and of those directly impacted by police violence.

Read more on Toledo Blade.

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