The Metropolitan Opera: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (2023)

  • NR
  • 11/18/2023 (US)
  • Music, History, TV Movie
  • 3h 55m

Overview

Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, is Malcolm, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.

Thulani Davis

Writer

Robert O'Hara

Director

Christopher Davis

Story

Cast

Leah Hawkins's headshot

Leah Hawkins

Louise/Betty
Raehann Bryce-Davis's headshot

Raehann Bryce-Davis

Ella / Queen Mother
Victor Ryan Robertson's headshot

Victor Ryan Robertson

Elijah/Street
Will Liverman's headshot

Will Liverman

Malcolm
Michael Sumuel's headshot

Michael Sumuel

Reginald
Angela Bassett's headshot

Angela Bassett

Host
Bryce Christian Thompson's headshot

Bryce Christian Thompson

Young Malcolm

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