CHAMPION

Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021–22.

The Metropolitan Opera

New York, NY
2022-2023 Season

TKTK Video Caption
About

Champion, Terence Blanchard’s premiered at the Met in the 2023-2024 season following Fire Shut Up in My Bones that premiered to critical acclaimed during the 2021-2022 season. Champion depicts the conflicts and crises in the life of boxer Emile Griffith. He saw the truly operatic dimensions in the confluence of love, violence, death, and forgiveness, and in bringing them to the stage, he wove together both contemporary and classical musical idioms to create a wholly new sound world, one that he characterizes as “opera in jazz.”

 

Press

Champion Wins Grammy for Best Opera Recording

Tue, Apr 11

Opera Wire

“Champion packs an emotional and visual punch.”
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Thu, Apr 11

Vulture

“Blanchard is a master at matching color and pace, finding the perfect shade of indigo for a blue mood or the right brass blat to punctuate an ironic line.”
Read more

Fri, Apr 11

New York Times

Review: ‘Champion,’ at the Met Opera, Spars With History
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Terence Blanchard's Champion - What Makes a Man a Man (2022/23 Season)
Champion: "Seventeen Blows"
Guggenheim - Words and Process Interview with Terence Blanchard and Jim Robinson

“Blanchard is a master at matching color and pace, finding the perfect shade of indigo for a blue mood or the right brass blat to punctuate an ironic line.”

Vulture, NY Mag

CREDITS

CHAMPION CREDITS

COMPOSER

Terence Blanchard

LIBRETTIST

Michael Cristofer

PRODUCTION

James Robinson

SET DESIGNER

Allen Moyer

COSTUME DESIGNER

Montana Levi Blanco

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Donald Holder

PROJECTION DESIGNER

Greg Emetaz

CHOREOGRAPHER

Camille A. Brown

CONDUCTOR

Yannick Nézet-Séguis

CONDUCTOR

Kensho Watanabe

EMELDA GRIFFITH

Latonia Moore

YOUNG EMILE GRIFFITH

Ryan Speedo Green

EMILE GRIFFITH

Eric Owens

KATHY HAGEN

Stephanie Blythe

KATHY HAGEN

Meredith Arwady

HOWIE ALBERT

Paul Groves

BENNY “KID” PARET

Eric Greene

 

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