Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 6 - Champion

15 | Lyric Opera of Chicago Taking a Solo To compose Champion ,Terence Blanchard knew he’d have to rely on his own individual sensibilities Terence Blanchard grew up with the sound of opera in his ears—his father was an amateur baritone—but he gravitated toward jazz early on. “Obviously, [opera] became a part of my musical DNA without me even knowing it,” he says. Blanchard’s storied jazz career has brought him seven Grammy awards and two Oscar nominations and has placed him at the pinnacle in that genre for decades. Now his operatic credentials are catching up. His surging, pulsing, dynamic score for Champion has won fans from St. Louis to San Francisco to New York. His second effort, Fire Shut Up in My Bones , which opened the Metropolitan Opera’s season in 2021 and arrived at Lyric in 2022, was hailed by The New York Times as “bold and affecting” and roundly praised by audiences. The composer of these two instant classics seems as surprised as anyone by their success. “When Jim Robinson from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis contacted me and told me they were thinking about asking me to do an opera, man, I thought he was nuts,” he chuckles. “But they stepped me through the process. It was a beautiful experience.” Blanchard has been overwhelmed by the response to his work. “I thought I might be run out of town,” he says, laughing. “The world of opera can be very intimidating. I was very prepared to have my excuse of, ‘Well, I’m just a jazz musician.’ I’m listening to all these classic operas, going, ‘How did he do that? That’s not me.’ My composition teacher, Roger Dickerson, kept saying, ‘Don’t think about writing opera—just tell a story.’ Once he told me that, I thought, ‘I’ve got to have a don’t-care attitude and just do what I feel is right. If it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, I still have my career.’” By Louise T. Guinther Rose Callahan Librettist Kasi Lemmons and composer Terence Blanchard take their bows at the Metropolitan Opera’s opening-night curtain call for Fire Shut Up in My Bones ,September 27,2021.