From April 6-10, American Lyric Theater (ALT) presents FROM ERASED TO SELF-EMPOWERED: CELEBRATING BIPOC OPERA COMPOSERS AND LIBRETTISTS, a three-part online seminar and roundtable, culminating in a free virtual concert performance April 10th at 7:30 pm et. The program is open to composers, librettists, educators and the general public. Advance registration is required.
"BIPOC composers and librettists have written for the Lyric Stage for centuries, but so many of their contributions have been consciously erased from the opera house - historically white, Euro-centric, racist institutions where select, self-anointed groups of people have gone out of their way to control the repertoire, who writes opera, who is represented on stage, and how," said ALT's Founder, Lawrence Edelson, explaining the impetus behind the program. "The tide is beginning to turn, but we still have a long way to go before opera reflects the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary American society."
Led by ALT's newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Kelly Kuo, the first part of the seminar will explore the history of remarkable BIPOC composers and librettists who wrote for the opera stage, but whose works have been erased from the repertoire. ComposersDaniel Bernard Roumain, Justine F. Chen, Anthony Davis, Huang Ruo, and Errollyn Wallen, and librettists Richard Wesley, David Henry Hwang, Kanika Ambrose, and Andrea Davis Pinkney, then join Kuo for two roundtables where they will discuss their own pathways into opera; why they are drawn to opera to tell their stories through music; navigating racism in the opera field; and the complementary value of allyship and self-empowerment in advancing BIPOC artists' contributions to the operatic repertoire.