Review Roundup: Terence Blanchard's CHAMPION at the Metropolitan Opera

Following its Metropolitan Opera premiere on April 10th, Terence Blanchard's opera Champion, based on the true story of the troubled former middleweight boxing champion Emile Griffith, continues with nine performances running through May 13.

The work, with a libretto by Michael Cristofer, arrives at the Met a season after Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones made history as the first opera by a Black composer to be presented at the Met. The company's recording of Fire recently won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, garnering Blanchard his seventh Grammy.

A superstar cast led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, brings to life the story of the bi-sexual boxer Emile Griffith, a New York hat-factory worker who rose to become a world champion while attempting to keep his sexual identity secret. Griffith killed his archrival Benny "Kid" Paret in the ring after being outed by him at the weigh in of their final title fight, an event that haunted Griffith for the rest of his life.

Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green portrays Emile as a young boxer, and bass-baritone Eric Owens plays Griffith's tormented and punch-drunk older self. The cast also stars soprano Latonia Moore as Emelda Griffith, the boxer's estranged mother; mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the gay bar owner Kathy Hagen; tenor Paul Groves as Howie Albert, the factory owner who discovered Emile's boxing talent; and baritone Eric Greene as Benny "Kid" Paret, the fighter that Griffith killed with a barrage of blows in a 1962 title fight. Contralto Meredith Arwady sings the role of Kathy Hagen on May 8, and Kensho Watanabe will conduct the May 13 performance.

Director James Robinson-whose productions of Fire and Porgy and Bess at the Met scored major successes-directs Champion, as he did when the work had its world premiere in St. Louis a decade ago. Camille A. Brown, who electrified audiences with her choreography in Porgy and Fire, the latter which she co-directed, also returns as choreographer.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Zachary Woolfe, NY Times: The striking energy of Camille A. Brown's choreography, which was so crucial to "Fire" that she was designated its co-director, is folded more organically into the scenes in "Champion." But here she conjures visions no less memorable than the showstopping step dance of "Fire": a raucous carnival in St. Thomas, an explosively macho boxing gym, gay bar encounters that radiate some genuine heat.

Heidi Waleson, WSJ: When he does write melodies, Mr. Blanchard's style is unpredictable. The line of Young Emile's musing aria, "What makes a man a man," is questioning and inconclusive, appropriate for his unresolved question of whether love makes a man strong or weak. The skillful dramaturgy alternates these types of scenes.

David Wright, NY Classical Review: Not every opera composer can be Wagner, but a recognizable tune or motive here and there could have done a lot to involve the listener and convey the meaning of the action in music, not just words. Even so crucial a moment as that fateful 12th round of the championship bout was marked simply by a generic orchestral crescendo as Griffith rained punches on the defenseless Benny "Kid" Paret, and a life-altering event became just a few seconds of stage action.

Richard Sasanow, BroadwayWorld: The cast is strong. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is a charismatic Griffith with the ability to make the most of anything given to him. About the only thing wrong with his singing is there wasn't enough of it, because the character is split between the young and old version of the boxer.

Justin Davidson, Vulture: Yannick Nézet-Séguin steers the orchestra and chorus through all the many shifts from darkness to dazzle, shimmy, and grind. Director James Robinson narrates the action with canny use of projections, lighting, and a rotating ring. He also makes the most of the singers' physicality: Green's tightly coiled grace, Moore's sexy defiance, Eric Greene's menace in the role of Benny Paret, and Stephanie Blythe's raunchy swagger and trombonelike mezzo-soprano as the owner of a gay bar where Emile finds a glint of tenuous happiness.

Photo: Ryan Speedo Green (center) as Young Emile Griffith, Paul Groves (purple jacket) as Howie Albert, and Latonia Moore (right) as Emelda Griffith in Terence Blanchard's "Champion." Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera

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