The life of Malcolm
The opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm American since the 1960s.
The opera had been performed very little before being staged in 2021 in Detroit, in the north of the country, then this fall in the American cultural capital.
Rehearsal of the opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, October 31, 2023
AFP
At the Met Opera in Manhattan, the work is composed by Anthony Davis, the libretto written by Thulani Davis, with Robert O’Hara conducting, and baritone Will Liverman in the title role.
It traces the 39 years of the life of Malcolm Little, born in 1925, who became Malcolm X one of the most influential radical civil rights activists before his assassination in February 1965 in Harlem, in northern Manhattan.
Violent death
His violent death – for which two black American men were exonerated in 2021 and compensated just a year ago after 20 years in prison – was a thunderbolt and a tragedy, experts explain.
Rehearsal of the opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, October 31, 2023
AFP
The revival of the opera tries out the Afrofuturist aesthetic: an enormous replica of a spaceship swirls above the stage on which the choir artists wear pre-colonial-inspired clothing mixed with drawn-out fashion. science fiction.
Operatic music — contemporary classical with jazz accents — is accompanied by a troupe of dancers.
For composer Anthony Davis, it’s “not about trying to paint a faithful portrait of Malcolm, but about trying to bring to life all the ideas and concepts that he was so involved with.”
Because, according to the musician, “Malcolm is a tragic hero”.
“Black Lives Matter”
Because almost 60 years after the disappearance of the former leader of the radical group “Nation of Islam” and three years after the demonstrations of the “Black Lives Matter” movement, this opera takes on a political dimension.
Rehearsal of the opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, October 31, 2023
AFP
For Mr. Davis, “the awakening we witnessed after George Floyd” — a black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020 who sparked anti-racist protests across the country — “relaunched the urgency of do better in terms of diversity in the classical music world.
Until recently, “so many people, ideas and aesthetic styles were on the sidelines”, laments the artist who thinks that the United States is now “more open”.
For Leah Hawkins, the soprano singer who plays both Malcolm public should get used to it (…) and not an exceptional event”.
Rehearsal of the opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, October 31, 2023
AFP
The movement is slowly taking off in the classical music world, Ms. Hawkins acknowledges.
The Met Opera has made a point of welcoming more contemporary and diverse productions such as “Fire” in 2021 and “Champion” in 2022, both composed by jazzman Terence Blanchard.
Educational virtues
“X” also has educational virtues, Mr. Davis and Ms. Hawkins tell AFP.
Rehearsal of the opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, October 31, 2023
AFP
“I know a lot of people who have never read +The Autobiography of Malcolm educate people.”
This is all the more essential, adds Anthony Davis, in a country hyperpolarized on social issues and which is divided between progressives and conservatives, between different cultural groups.
And this, just one year before the presidential election.
The story of Malcolm
2023-11-03 21:24:29
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