Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, is Malcolm, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.
Cast
Librettist: Thulani Davis
Production: Robert O’Hara
Set Designer: Clint Ramos
Costume Designer: Dede Ayite
Lighting Designer: Alex Jainchill
Projection Designer: Yee Eun Nam
Choreographer: Rickey Tripp
Kazem Abdullah (Conductor), Leah Hawkins (Louise/Betty), Raehann Bryce-Davis (Ella), Victor Ryan Robertson (Elijah/Street), Will Liverman (Malcolm), Michael Sumuel (Reginald)
