Champion • Terence Blanchard • opera • live • premiere at the Met
Libretto: Michael Christopher
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Directed by: James Robinson
Stage: Allen Moyer
Costumes: Paul Tazewell
Lighting Design: Donald Holder
Projection Design: Greg Emetaz
Choreography: Camille A. Brown
Estimated duration: 3 hours (including one break)
Cast: Latonia Moore (Emelda Griffith), Stephanie Blythe (Kathy Hagan), Ryan Speedo Green (Young Emile Griffith), Eric Owens (Emile Griffith)
The 2021-2022 season made history when the Metropolitan Opera premiered Fire in the Bones by six-time Grammy Award-winning composer Terence Blanchard. Now the Met presents his first operatic work, The Champion. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green will play Emil Griffith, a young boxer who rose from nothing to world champion. Bass-baritone Eric Owens sings the same character, but in a later age, haunted by the horrors of the past. Soprano Latonia Moore is the boxer's estranged mother Emelda Griffith, and Stephanie Blythe sings bar owner Kathy Hagan. Blanchard's second premiere at the Metropolitan Opera will again be conducted by its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Following his directorial success with Fire in the Bones and Porgy and Bess is James Robinson, who, as in both of these productions, has once again joined forces with the excellent choreographer Camille A. Brown.
