BLUE Will Be Performed by Michigan Opera Theatre in September

Michigan Opera Theatre is set to stage its next production, an opera shedding light on the everyday experience of Black Americans. Winner of the 2020 Music Critics Association of America Award for Best Opera, BLUE is a new American opera which centers on a family and community as they experience both tragedy and healing. This production will be the first opera staged at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, and boasts a fully female leadership team under director Kaneza Schaal and conductor Daniela Candillari.

In addition to featuring many original cast members reprising their roles, many have a direct connection with Metro Detroit and affiliations with institutions such as Oakland University (Krysty Swann) and University of Michigan (Kenneth Kellogg, Olivia Johnson and Camron Gray).

BLUE features a richly evocative libretto by playwright Tazewell Thompson (MOT's A View from the Bridge) and masterful score by lauded theatrical composer Jeanine Tesori (Broadway's Fun Home and Caroline, or Change).

"You could say that BLUE is about a Black teenage boy who dies at the hands of a police officer - but that would be misleading, and would probably make you think the opera was exploitative of tragedy," says MOT Artistic Director Yuval Sharon. "What BLUE is actually about is the story of a Black family, and the strong community that family has in the wake of a terrible tragedy. Tazewell's heartfelt and deeply personal story, expressed through Jeanine's engaging music, highlights just how much opera can serve as a mechanism for creating community and for offering healing."

MOT's production of BLUE will feature the beautiful ambiance of the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre with a stunning backdrop of the Detroit River. BLUE will premiere in Detroit with performances on Saturday, Sept. 11 and Sunday, Sept. 12, both at 7 p.m. Tickets will be available for public purchase on Saturday, July 17 at Noon via Ticketmaster and on the MOT website.

BLUE is presented by Cadillac with support from the Rocket Community Fund, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Masco, and the Burton A. and Sandra D. Zipser Foundation.