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Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Black experience, culture finds its way to The Met stage as opera vows more diversity
PBS NewsHour: History is being made Monday night at The Metropolitan Opera — one of the country’s most important cultural organizations — and for several of the artists involved. Jeffrey Brown has a preview for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.
What is opera but not the musical cry of societal expression, and to see it open up to new voice! Opera within the last 100 years has become a fantastic storytelling element for communities besides Western European aristocrats, and while having an opera written by a Black composer is a long time coming for the Met, I’m ecstatic that it is finally happening. While opera is usually seen as a very snooty and pretentious art form, telling the Black Southern story through it is such a rich and insightful medium. With this being such a historic milestone for the Met, there’s hope that opera is coming back, both from Covid and the fading of the public conscience. The Met is finally giving a stage to voices which it has excluded for over 100 years, and to be living during this transformative and rebirthing period of opera is quite amazing. I hope the Met continues to give stage to underrepresented voices in its art forms, because new voices are exactly what opera needs to survive.
What is opera but not the musical cry of societal expression, and to see it open up to new voice! Opera within the last 100 years has become a fantastic storytelling element for communities besides Western European aristocrats, and while having an opera written by a Black composer is a long time coming for the Met, I’m ecstatic that it is finally happening. While opera is usually seen as a very snooty and pretentious art form, telling the Black Southern story through it is such a rich and insightful medium. With this being such a historic milestone for the Met, there’s hope that opera is coming back, both from Covid and the fading of the public conscience. The Met is finally giving a stage to voices which it has excluded for over 100 years, and to be living during this transformative and rebirthing period of opera is quite amazing. I hope the Met continues to give stage to underrepresented voices in its art forms, because new voices are exactly what opera needs to survive.
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