New Orleans Opera Announces ALLONS! Virtual Lecture Series For Spring 2021

New Orleans Opera has announced a virtual lecture series for Spring 2021, called ALLONS! This series takes place at your house - on Zoom!

Check out the lineup below and purchase tickets here.

Givonna Joseph, Thursday, March 4 at 7:00 pm: MARIAN ANDERSON

Celebrated contralto Marian Anderson is widely regarded as one of the finest operatic voices of her time, breaking barriers for opera singers of color across the United States. Her famous performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, was a historic moment, leading to her debut as the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Givonna Joseph, co-founder of OperaCréole, shares Ms. Anderson's legacy with an overview of her work and music.

Brian Morgan, Thursday, March 11 at 7:00 pm: Norman Treigle

Biographer Brian Morgan joins us to discuss the life and career of New Orleans native Norman Treigle, the great operatic bass-baritone, as well as an overview of operatic life in New Orleans during the middle of the twentieth century. Mr. Morgan's research into Mr. Treigle's too-brief life is the only in-depth accounting of the singer who was acclaimed as one of history's finest singing actors.

Sakinah Davis, Thursday, March 25 at 7:00 pm: FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES

Fire Shut Up in My Bones is the 2014 novel by Louisianian Charles Blow, telling the story of his coming of age as a young Black man in the Deep South. Louisiana jazz composer, Terence Blanchard, chose this memoir as the subject of his second opera, which premiered at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2019 and will become the first opera composed by a Black musician to be presented on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Dr. Sakinah Davis, Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Opera Workshop at Xavier University, will explore the composition, Mr. Blanchard's music, and this opera's place in operatic history.

Wilfred Delphin, Dan Shore, and Dara Rahming, Thursday, April 1 at 7:00 pm: FREEDOM RIDE

On May 15, 1961, a group of civil rights activists known as Freedom Riders were flown to New Orleans after having been violently attacked in Alabama. Upon their arrival they were hidden away on Xavier University's campus by Dr. Norman C. Francis, a secret so dangerous it was not revealed until many years later. This lecture is led by Dr. Wilfred Delphin, Artist in Residence at Xavier University with Dr. Dan Shore, composer of the opera Freedom Ride, and Dara Rahming, former faculty member at Xavier and the singer for whom the title role was written. Join them as they discuss the events of 1961, how the Freedom Riders successfully desegregated interstate travel in the South, and the opera that was born from that tumultuous period.

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