Blue - Opera Tickets | Schedule for 2024/2025 Events

Blue - Opera

Blue is an opera with two parts. Jeanine Tesori wrote the music, and Tazewell Thompson wrote the words. It was first performed at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2019 and won the Music Critics Association of North America's Best New Opera Award for 2020.

Thompson felt a lot while he was writing "Blue." As a Black man, he has seen the effects of racism in America repeatedly, and now he is writing about them.

At Tesori's suggestion, he made the father's character a police officer. He then talked to Black police officers about their jobs and lives to find out what that would be like. They told him that they wanted to be good even though their neighbors and even some of their coworkers were suspicious of them.

The opera was about a Black family that finds strength in its community after a police officer kills a family member. When it first came out, it was praised by critics and is now one of the most anticipated shows of 2020.

But the pandemic stopped everything just a few days before the shows started in D.C.

The Story

The opera is about a black family living in Harlem. At the beginning of Act 1, they expect a baby boy and are excited about his future, even though their friend is worried and envious of them. Sixteen years later, the son has become a nonviolent political protester, which causes problems with his police officer's father.

A police officer shoots the son at one of his protests. He succumbed to his injuries, leaving behind his parents to mourn in their ways: the mother with her friends and the father with a Reverend.

The opera comes to a close with the son's funeral, which is a stunning and heartbreaking end to a very emotional opera.

About The Show

Tesori worked on Blue for the Glimmerglass Festival. When Tazewell Thompson, who had directed several operas for the festival, was asked by Tesori to suggest a librettist, he said that the composer writes the words himself.

In Thompson's first draughts, the father was a saxophone player. However, Tesori asked that his role be changed to that of a police officer, which puts the father and son at odds with each other.

This complicated connection between father and son makes Tesori and Thompson's Blue one of the most popular modern operas. It won the "Best New Opera" award at the Music Critics Association of North America in 2020.