Toledo Opera will also host a free Pre-Opera Talk one hour before each show in the Grand Lobby of the Valentine Theatre. They can be purchased by calling the Toledo Opera box office at 41.) This continues while supplies of reduced price tickets last. (Toledo Opera is offering a limited supply of reduced ticket price of $35 for both performances of “Blue’ for a limited time. Influenced by gospel music and using vivid flashbacks, “Blue” places timely issues at the forefront of modern opera and invites audiences to the emotional epicenter of their impact. at the Valentine Theatre, 400 North Superior, Toledo. I hope that she will write another opera.Toledo Opera will present the Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and NAACP Theatre Award–winning librettist Tazewell Thompson’s new opera “Blue” on Friday, Aug. Blue is her first and only opera–she has a Tony-award-winning background in musicals (read the ArtsWatch review of Fun Home at The Armory in 2017 here). Tesori’s music flew by effortlessly and captured the emotional content superbly. The orchestra played with verve, and the conductor Viswa Subbaraman kept the sound well-balanced with the singers throughout the evening. In the Michigan Opera Theatre production of Blue that I saw last summer (read Angela Allen’s review here), The Father picked up his gun at one point and The Reverend takes it away after a brief struggle, making you wonder what will happen next. In the Seattle production, The Father places his gun on a table where it remains until the end of the scene, when The Reverend removes it. But it seemed that the scene in which The Father meets with The Reverend needed more drama. Because another officer watches him do this, it gives the pantomime a prison-like atmosphere. One of Thompson’s best ideas was to have The Father change from his civilian clothes to his police uniform during the overture. It would be terrific to hear him again in a more demanding role.įrom left: Joshua Conyers as Policeman 3, Kenneth Kellogg as The Father, Korland Simmons as Policeman 2, and Camron Gray as Policeman 1. Tenor Joshua Stewart as The Son had all of the moves of a defiant teenager, and his voice was strong and absolutely gorgeous. I just wanted to go up to the stage and give her a hug. One of the very high points of any opera that I have ever witnessed was her plea to God to get any part of her son back. Mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter was spectacular as The Mother. His slightly rough-hewn bass complemented his demeanor as the man of the house and officer of the law, but also as a parent who could show compassion. Kenneth Kellogg embodied the persona of The Father perfectly. Excellent lighting by Eric Norbury isolated the characters effectively.
A huge façade of older rowhouses, evocative of New York City, lined one side of the stage and extended at an angle to the back wall. Seattle Opera reprised the production that was originally commissioned by The Glimmerglass Festival, including scenery designed by Donald Eastman and costumes by Jessica Jahn.
But as the parents exit the son tells them that he will go to a peace demonstration and there’s nothing to worry about.įrom left: Kenneth Kellogg as The Father, Briana Hunter as The Mother, and Joshua Stewart as The Son. The final scene shows the family’s last supper with the son, and reveals a reconciliation between father and son. The pastor tries to assuage the father, but even at the funeral where the congregation urges the parents to lay their burdens down, the parents’ grief remains overwhelming. Despite his son’s animosity, the father keeps reaching out to him, and the mother struggles to keep the two of them reconciled, but the son is killed by a policeman while participating in a protest march. In the son’s mind, that represents the forces that hold down Black people. The son resents his father, who is a police officer. Winner of the Music Critics Association of North America’s Best New Opera award in 2020, Blue exposes how difficult it is to raise a Black boy in the United States. Front row, from left: Kenneth Kellogg as The Father and Briana Hunter as The Mother. Second row, from left: Ellaina Lewis as Congregant 2, Gordon Hawkins as The Reverend, Camron Gray as Congregant 1, and Ariana Wehr as Congregant 1. Back row, from left: Joshua Conyers as Congregant 3, Cheryse McLeod Lewis as Congregant 3, and Korland Simmons as Congregant 2.
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