CHAMPION

Terence Blanchard’s adaption of the dramatic true story of boxer Emile Griffith

Seven-time Grammy Award-winning composer Terence Blanchard’s first opera CHAMPION depicts the conflicts and crises in the life of boxer Emile Griffith. When Blanchard was initially approached to write an opera, this subject emerged as the story that he felt most inspired to set to music. He saw the truly operatic dimensions in the confluence of love, violence, death, and forgiveness, and in bringing them to the stage, he wove together both contemporary and classical musical idioms to create a wholly new sound world, one that he characterizes as “opera in jazz”.

In this porduction, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green stars as the young prizefighter, who battles demons in and out of the ring, while bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by a pivotal moment from his past. Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a knockout new production by James Robinson, which also features baritone Eric Greene as the opponent whom Griffith inadvertently kills; soprano Latonia Moore as Griffith’s mother, Emelda; tenor Paul Groves as his coach, Howie Albert; and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as bar owner Kathy Hagen, who offers him much-needed solace.

“The thrill and agony of victory” (New York Times)

“Blanchard has done it again… Even if you don’t fancy yourself as an opera lover or aficionado, his latest opera is a MUST SEE… Blanchard and his trumpet have provided the soundtrack to our lives.” (New York Amsterdam News)