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Toledo Opera Announces Black Lives-Inspired “Blue”
Special to The Truth
Toledo Opera is proud to
announce that it will be producing “Blue” in February of
2022. “Blue” follows the story of a Black couple in
contemporary Harlem. The father, a police officer, worries
about his teenage activist son while questioning his own
identity as a "Black man in blue.” When the son is killed
by a fellow officer, the family turns to the
church and community for
answers and the father struggles with his desire
for revenge on the cop who
shot his son.
“Blue” just received the
Award for Best New Opera from the Music Critics Association
of North America. “Blue” is a collaboration between
playwright/director Tazewell Thompson and Tony Award -
winning composer Jeanine Tesori. The world premiere was at
Glimmerglass Festival in 2019. The opera examines racial
injustice from both a personal and institutional
perspective. Thompson explains, "I wrote it from an
obsessive need and sense of responsibility to tell an
intimate story behind the numbing numbers of boys and men
who are killed.”
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Executive Director of Toledo
Opera, Suzanne Rorick says "Opera is about telling powerful
stories, and *Blue *continues this tradition with a moving
and personal story that is
relevant to today." Toledo Opera also plans to develop a
series of community programming that centers around the
experiences of Toledoans of color, and those directly
impacted by police violence. “Blue” will be performed at
the Valentine Theatre on February 11 & 13, 2022. Tickets are
not yet on sale.
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