Wayne Shorter dreamed of writing a long-form dramatic piece since he was 19 years old. Now 88, he's teamed up with the brilliant bassist Esperanza Spalding, who is the librettist for and a performer in Shorter's major update of the Greek tragedy "Iphigenia" by Euripides.
New Orleans native Terence Blanchard is well known for the music he's written for Spike Lee's movies. Blanchard's second venture into opera, "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," is based on the memoir by Charles M. Blow, and is the first opera by a Black composer to be performed at the famed Metropolitan Opera. The response was so overwhelmingly positive, the Met is going to present Blanchard's first opera, "Champion," in April 2023.
