Opera Philadelphia's WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED to Make New York Premiere

O17, the inaugural edition of Opera Philadelphia's game-changing new annual season-opening festival, launched like a rocket earlier this month, trailing a blaze of critical and popular acclaim.

Next Friday, one of the three new operas that received its world premiere at the festival - We Shall Not Be Moved, a "deeply moving" work (Washington Post) that "succeeds on the level of art and not just polemic" (Opera News) - is set to make its New York premiere at Harlem's Apollo Theater (Oct 6 & 7).

A powerfully poetic interdisciplinary new chamber opera that draws on the collective talents of Haitian-American composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, Haitian-American spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and peerless director, choreographer, and dramaturge Bill T. Jones, We Shall Not Be Moved depicts five North Philadelphia teens on the run: a 15-year-old African-American girl and her self-selected "family" of four brothers - a black-identified white boy and three African-Americans, one of whom is transgender. Their confrontation with a local police officer - herself a woman of color - raises timely questions of national identity, gender identity, the insidious nature of racism, police presence in minority neighborhoods, the violence that sometimes ensues, and the way some are failed by the education system. Combining spoken word, contemporary dance, video projection, and classical, R&B and jazz singing with a brooding, often joyful score, the work hinges ultimately on the notion of personal responsibility. In New York, as in Philadelphia, We Shall Not Be Moved stars spoken word artist Lauren Whitehead as 15-year-old Un/Sung, with countertenor John Holiday, bass-baritone Aubrey Allicock, tenor Daniel Shirley, and baritone Adam Richardson as her four self-appointed "brothers," and soprano Kirstin Chávez as police officer Glenda, under the baton of Viswa Subbaraman. Click here to watch performance clips and a video series about the making of We Shall Not Be Moved.

Opera Philadelphia is committed to embracing innovation and developing opera for the 21st century. Described as "the very model of a modern opera company" by the Washington Post, Opera Philadelphia was the only American finalist for the 2016 International Opera Award for Best Opera Company. After opening its 2017-18 season with the immersive O17 festival, Opera Philadelphia looks forward to completing it with a pair of back-to-back new productions - Written on Skin and Carmen - next spring. For more information, visit www.operaphila.org.

IF YOU GO:

WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED

New York premiere
Oct 6 & 7
At The Apollo Theater, Harlem

Music by Daniel Bernard Roumain
Libretto by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Director, choreographer and dramaturge: Bill T. Jones

Cast:
Un/Sung: Lauren Whitehead
Glenda: Kirstin Chávez
John Blue: John Holiday
John Little: Daniel Shirley
John Mack: Adam Richardson
John Henry: Aubrey Allicock
OGs: Michael Bishop, Duane Lee Holland, Jr., Tendayi Kuumba, Caci Cole Pritchett

Creative team:
Conductor: Viswa Subbaraman
Set design: Matt Saunders
Costume design: Liz Prince
Lighting design: Robert Wierzel
Projection design: Jorge Cousineau
Sound design: Robert Kaplowitz
Assistant director: Seth Hoff
Assistant choreographer: Raphael Xavier

Pictured: Scene from We Shall Not Be Moved at O17. Photo by Dave DiRentis.

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