LA Opera Debuts Newest Digital Short DEATH By Tyshawn Sorey And Nadia Hallgren

LA Opera's newest Digital Short is now online: Death, created by composer Tyshawn Sorey, a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship ("Genius Grant"), and filmmaker Nadia Hallgren, the Emmy-nominated director of the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming.

The powerful piece is a contemporary exploration of a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), the most influential Black poet of his time, and addresses the Black experience in America in Sorey's own words.

Partly filmed at Dunbar's home in Dayton, Ohio, the project features a newly commissioned song by Sorey for solo voice and piano, performed by mezzo-soprano Amanda Lynn Bottoms and pianist Howard Watkins.

Part of the LA Opera On Now platform of digital programming, Digital Shorts are presented free of charge. To learn more, and to watch previously released Digital Shorts, visit LAOpera.org/DigitalShorts.