Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Opening Night of the 2021–22 season marks the first time an opera by an African American composer will appear on the Met stage. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Grammy Award–winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s acclaimed adaptation of the celebrated memoir by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. Featuring a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, the opera tells the story of a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown—two of the creators of the Met’s recent production of Porgy and Bess—co-direct this new staging.

Baritone Will Liverman stars as Charles, alongside sopranos Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta and Latonia Moore
as Billie. The opera (in this expanded version) is commissioned by the Met with the OperaTheater of Saint Louis, co-commissioned by Jazz St. Louis.

The production is a gift of The Ford Foundation.