The third production in Cincinnati Opera's Black Opera Project will tell the tale of a young couple renovating a historic home, and all the ups and downs that come with it. Good Bones is set to premiere in Summer 2028.
According to a release, Good Bones "follows a young couple renovating a historic home in a historically Black neighborhood within an up-and-coming city, compelling them to contend with spirits past and present."
Composer Michael Abels is writing the music, with libretto by James Ijames. It's based on Ijames' play, Good Bones. It will be staged by opera director Timothy Douglas, with Kelly Kuo conducting.
Black Opera Project
Announced in 2024, The Black Opera Project is commissioning three original, full-length operas that celebrate the richness of the Black American experience. Each is written, composed, created, and presented by Black artists.
The first two previously announced operas are:
- Lalovavi - an Afrofuturist adventure in the city formerly known as Atlanta
- John Lewis: Good Trouble - a tribute to Civil Rights icon, John Lewis.
"We launched The Black Opera Project to illuminate dimensions of the Black American experience that have not yet been represented by our art form,” says Artistic Director Evans Mirageas.
The Black Opera Project represents an approximately $6 million investment, including funding from the Mellon Foundation, which Mirageas says fostered the initial idea from creating one opera into commissioning three.
The three operas will premiere over three years.
Lalovavi
Lalovavi opens first, on July 9 and 11 at Music Hall. Pronounced lah-low-VAH-vee, it features music by Kevin Day and libretto by poet Tifara Brown, who decided to incorporate the Tut language.
Tut is a language that was created by enslaved people to teach Black Americans English at a time when it was illegal to do so. "Lalovavi" is the Tut world for "love."
Speaking with WVXU, Brown recalls thinking, "if I had no barriers, what kind of story would I imagine? What is the kind of story that I've been wanting to see on stage or on a movie screen, and then Lalovavi basically poured out of that.
"I wanted a heroine's journey. I wanted power and beauty. I wanted softness and then bravery. I wanted technology, but then also I wanted the call back to my Indigenous heritage, and I was able to bring all of that together, and Lalovavi came out of that."
John Lewis: Good Trouble
The second opera, John Lewis: Good Trouble, is currently scheduled to premiere in June 2027. It features music by Maria Thompson Corley and a libretto by Diana Solomon-Glover, with stage direction and dramaturgy by Good Bones director Timothy Douglas, and conducted by Everett McCorvey.
It will chronicle the life of Civil Rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis.
"The opera interweaves Lewis’s personal story with the broader struggles of the time, capturing the essence of his unwavering commitment to love, nonviolence, and justice. Spanning Lewis’s humble beginnings in Troy, Alabama, through the tumultuous events that shaped the movement, the opera delves into issues of race, humanity, and the moral imperative to rise above division, underscoring an enduring message of hope and urging each generation to continue the fight for equality," according to a brief Cincinnati Opera description.
Cincinnati Opera is the second-oldest opera company in the U.S.
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