Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 7 Fire Shut Up My Bones

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 32 Blaze of Glory Lyric Opera’s presentation of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones —an expanded version co- commissioned with the Metropolitan Opera and LA Opera—takes its place in the rich history of vernacular popular, religious, and classical art music traditions in Chicago. Based on The New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s 2014 memoir of the same title, this is the second opera by a Black compositional team that has appeared at Lyric. The first took place in 1997, with the premiere of Anthony Davis’s Lyric commission Amistad (with libretto by Thulani Davis), an opera based on historical events about the African diaspora and the middle passage slave trade across the Atlantic. As with Amistad , Fire brings several major Black artists to by Naomi André Lyric in their debuts: leading singers Latonia Moore, Jacqueline Echols, Chauncey Packer, and co-director/ choreographer Camille A. Brown. This production also celebrates two Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center alums: Will Liverman (in the central role) and Chris Kenney (Chester). Fire Shut Up in My Bones is part of a much longer trajectory of operatic contributions by Black composers, librettists, singers, and collaborating artists. From the 19th century’s Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield and Sissieretta Jones (two of the best-known Black opera singers of their time) and the composers Henry Lawrence Freeman, Scott Joplin, William Grant Still, and many others, Black artists had been creating and singing opera long before Photo: Ken Howard Will Liverman as Charles (left) remembers when his mother Billie,performed by Latonia Moore (center), confronted one of his father’s lovers, in a scene from the Metropolitan Opera’s production.