This is so cool. These folks wrapped filming this last year and the 4 part mini-series goes live the end of this month.
The headline is absolutely pertinent. No amount of money.... can replace time.
The opera called “The Central Park 5” by composer Anthony Davis and librettist Richard Wesley opens June 15-23 through Long Beach Opera.
The music. Is phenomenal.
No, I’m serious. Davis has I think maybe cracked the code of how to put contemporary music into a classical opera score.
He definitely has a sound, a palate of rhythm and pitches that can only be his. A DNA if you will.
There are Jazz-age chords and deeply true Gospel structures that convey the feel of this story.
I’ve often wondered where is the opera for me? Where is the story that touches my world. Where is the music I want to hear? Over the years I've been able to sing in amazing productions with the music being "YES," but it's only recently that new music has begun to mine popular chords and sounds.
It used to happen. The aria, La Donna e mobile from Rigoletto... was instantly a pop song and though it sounds like a different world to today's pop... it's STILL insanely ubiquitous to this day.
While I'm not sure there are extractable CHR radio-friendly hits, but there are lots of moments where I'm like, "YES!" here.
Classical form... there is all of that in this opera too. But when the voices come together in harmony... well... it's more like Manhattan Transfer modern. And that is a compliment.
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#butidigress
The bottom line is how difficult it is to live an interrupted life. Not only just because “wrong place wrong time...” but also because what do you do when there are no winners?
A Brutal crime did happen. Yet- justice is not served simply by taking the easy way out.
People are prejudiced. There’s no getting around that. But people have to have more compassion and empathy for their fellow man, in order to overturn the associated guilt of that sin. We all have to work harder at forgiving. ((There is only death in hatred and intolerance))
That is hard. Giving up notions is quite challenging. It means being self-aware enough to know that the things our parents (not my mom, she's cool) and the adults around us MAYYY (note: sarcasm) not have been as cool as they sounded when we were children.
Empathy and Compassion are So much better than the alternatives. Giving up negative preconceived or entrenched ideas about people leads, in the end, to a brighter future.
Do you remember as a kid or somewhere in your life that feeling of having someone protect you? It was like a blessing, and a reprieve from doom.
Where we protect one another is what makes us great.
Anyway.... I hope to see a bunch of you in Mid-June for this world premiere. There’s a reason this story is making the rounds in different performance disciplines. It needs to be told. It needs action.
#StrugglingandStriving