Relevant Tones: Fire Shut Up in My Bones

New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow’s widely acclaimed memoir is the source for this extremely moving story of his traumatic youth in Louisiana. Composer Terence Blanchard, one of the most influential figures in American jazz, teamed up with librettist Kasi Lemmons, director of such films as Harriet and Eve’s Bayou, to create an opera adaptation of this remarkable story. The result is an opera that is timely, moving and powerful, revealing the Black experience in this country as few other operas have done and it’s currently at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

I talk with Terence Blanchard and feature excerpts from the opera, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

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