Davoné Tines to star in new Terence Blanchard opera

Davoné Tines

Davóne Tines will star in the world premiere of five-time Grammy winner Terence Blanchard and filmmaker Kasi Lemmons’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” at the Opera Theater of St. Louis this summer. The opera is based on the memoir of New York Times columnist and political commentator Charles Blow. This is the composer's second work for the company, following his highly successful "Champion," which premiered in 2013 and was subsequently performed at Opera Parallèle and the Washington National Opera.

The libretto for Fire Shut Up in My Bones is a soul-baring story of Blow's experiences growing up in Gibsland, Louisiana, including violence and the sexual abuse he endured from a relative.

The opera will also feature rising stars Julia Bullock in three roles and Karen Slack as Blow's mother. All three artists are making their Opera Theater of St. Louis mainstage debuts.

“Fire Shut Up in My Bones” will premiere on June 15, 2019 at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and run for six performances. Additional information is available online.

Davóne Tines also recently premiered The Black Clown, with text that the singer adapted from Langston Hughes. The piece deals a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression.

Francesca Zambello directs five barihunks in Dead Man Walking

Michael Mayes as Joseph de Rocher in Dead Man Walking

We generally credit director Francesca Zambello with coining the term "barihunk," so it should come as no surprise that she's directing five of them in a new production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at the Washington National Opera from February 25-March 11.

The cast will be led by Michael Mayes, who the composer dubbed the definitive Joseph de Rocher, the accused killer at the center of the story. Mayes is making his company debut with this performance, although he's performed the role with the New Orleans Opera, Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera, San Francisco's Opera Parallèle, Madison Opera and Eugene Opera. He'll be joined by barihunks Wayne Tigges as Owen Hart, Timonty J. Bruno as George Benton, Michael Adams as the Motorcycle Cop/Prison Guard and Andrew Bogard as the other Prison Guard. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham will sing Mrs. de Rocher and Kate Lindsay will sing Sister Helen.

Barihunks Andrew Bogard, Michael Adams and Timothy J. Bruno

Wayne Tigges

The opera is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s acclaimed 1993 memoir, which tells of her time working with death row inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary and of a particular relationship she developed with one of the inmates. The opera explores the human conflicts posed by society’s demands for vengeance and the Christian imperative for forgiveness and love.

Dead Man Walking is one of the most performed of new American operas. Since its world premiere at San Francisco Opera in 2000, it has been staged internationally in more than 40 productions on five continents; it has also received two live recordings. 

The company will also present Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer’s Champion starring barihunk Audrey Allicock from March 4– 18.

Both operas explore the theme of social justice which is often associated with John F. Kennedy and are presented as part of JFKC, the Kennedy Center’s season-long celebration of President Kennedy’s centennial. Using many of the same designers and scenic elements, the directors of each opera have worked collaboratively to create two distinct worlds in each new production to showcase the issues of Justice, Courage, and Freedom at the heart of these two compelling stories.

Terence Blanchard uses jazz as the basis for a cinematic and groundbreaking operatic score filled with bluesy harmonies and Afro-Caribbean beats; Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cristofer’s libretto tells the true story of Emile Griffith, a professional boxer from the U.S. Virgin Islands who threw a fatal punch in the boxing ring in 1962 after being taunted for his sexuality by his rival.

Aubrey Allicock, who created the role of the Young Emile at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2010, will be making his Washington National Opera debut with this performance. Singing the role of Emile’s mother, Emelda Griffith, is mezzo- soprano Denyce Graves, while tenor Victor Ryan Robertson is Emile’s rival Benny Paret, baritone Wayne Tigges is Howie Albert and contralto Meredith Arwady peforms Kathy Hagan.

Discounted ticket information for both shows is available online.

OUT Magazine features Aubrey Allicock

Aubrey Allicock (photo by Roger Erickson)

Barihunk Aubrey Allicock just completed a critically acclaimed run as the lead in Terence Blanchard's Champion at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The buzz in the opera world is that this was a career launching performance. OUT Magazine recently ran a profile of the singer along with this amazing photograph.

Hot List: Aubrey Allicock by Jerry Portwood

Aubrey Allicock, currently studying at Juilliard, is explaining his path as a young opera singer. “As a bass-baritone, I’m a baby, I’m a child!” he says, punctuating his confession with a big, hearty laugh. “I’ll probably be 40 before my voice hits its prime.”  Despite his relative youth in his field, the 29-year-old singer has the opportunity of a lifetime this summer when he originates the role of the young boxer Emile Griffith in the world premiere of Champion at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. [Read the entire article at OUT magazine].

Allicock was also featured in the Sound Bites section of Opera News.

Aubrey Allicock sings "Se vuol ballare" from Le Nozze di Figaro:

Aubrey Allicock to star as boxer Emile Griffith

Aubrey Allicock and Emile Griffith

The Opera Theatre of St. Louis has announced that barihunk Aubrey Allicock will star as bisexual boxer Emile Griffith in the world premiere of Champion on June 15, 2013. The opera was written by jazz great Tereence Blanchard with a libretto by playwright Michael Cristofer and will also star mezzo Denyce Graves.

Aubrey Allicock has become an instant fan favorite at the Opera Theatre where he played Mamoud in The Death of Klinghoffer in 2011 and the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland in 2012. Local opera fans got to know him during his two year stint with the Gerdine Young Artist program where he performed the roles of Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin and the Customs Official in La bohème.

Terence Blanchard: Taxi Driver:

Emile Griffith was a three-time World Welterweight Champion and twice a World Middleweight Champion, fighting from the late 1950s into the 1970s. However, one of his greatest professional triumphs – winning back the Welterweight Championship from Benny “The Kid” Paret in 1962 – was also one of his greatest personal tragedies. The seventeen punches he landed on Paret in seven seconds resulted in not only a knockout, but also a coma from which Paret would never recover. Paret would die ten days later.

The end of the Griffith-Paret fight + Norman Mailer's commentary:

Before that life-changing televised fight, in a room full of press and officials, Paret mocked Griffith repeatedly with a derogatory term for homosexual. Years later, Griffith’s sexuality as a gay man was revealed to the public after he was nearly killed by a gang outside a gay bar in New York. “I kill a man,” Griffith was quoted to have said, “and most people understand and forgive me. I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgiveable sin.” In an inspiring, moving, and painful journey of self-discovery, Champion presents audiences with a great contemporary tragic hero – a man of strength and courage consumed ultimately by rage, regret, and the terrible consequences of his actions.

Today, Griffith requires full time care and suffers from pugilistic dementia.