Relevant Tones: Castor and Patience

Castor and Patience is a new opera by composer Gregory Spears and libretto by former United States poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith. The opera takes on the pervasive barriers to land ownership for Black Americans by telling the story of two cousins’ struggles to own and keep property long held by their family. I attended the Cincinnati Opera’s premiere and talked with Spears and Smith about the opera.

You can listen to our conversation and hear excerpts of Gregory and Tracy’s opera here.