In June of 2019 we spoke with composer and musician Terence Blanchard about the world premiere of his second opera, Fire Shut Up in my Bones at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. On Monday, September 27th, the opera will have its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. This marks the first opera written by a Black composer to be performed at the famed New York venue. The opera will be performed eight times. The final performance on October 23rd will be streamed into theaters as part of their Met Opera Live in HD series.

The cast for the Metropolitan Opera production features Angel Blue, Will Liverman and Latonia Moore.

This is a great time to re-visit our conversation with Blanchard about Fire Shut Up in my Bones. 

Last week we spoke to Grammy winner Terence Blanchard about his gig with the E-Collective at the Playboy Jazz Festival. We also mentioned in that interview that his second opera, Fire Shut Up in my Bones, is having its world premiere this weekend at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

The opera is based on Charles M. Blow’s memoir of the same name. Blow is an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times. The title comes from a passage in the Bible from Jeremiah 20:9. The King James version has it as:  “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”

Collaborating with Blanchard on Fire Shut Up in my Bones is filmmaker Kasi Lemmons. Blanchard scored her films Eve’s Bayou, The Caveman’s Valentine and Talk to Me. He’s also writing the score for her new film, Harriet, about freedom fighter Harriet Tubman.

Fire Up in my Bones is Blanchard’s second opera. His first, Champion, was written with Michael Cristofer and was based on the life of boxer Emile Griffith. Champion had its world premiere in 2013.

In this column we pick up our conversation from last week and focus on Fire Shut Up in my Bones.

You’ve said that writing film requires you to put aside your ego. What does writing opera require of you?

Prayer. [He lets out an enormous laugh.] It’s hard to say. Writing opera is such a different animal. It requires a high level of focus and dedication. With this new opera, that’s two years of my life sitting down writing these melodies and putting this whole show together. It also takes great collaborators. Kasi Lemmons wrote a beautiful libretto. Jim Robinson, the director, is putting together an amazing show. 

Your life and journalist Charles Blow’s would seem to be very different. What resonated about his story and did you find commonality in his life experiences?

Obviously the first thing in the book was being molested by a family member, which is a tragic thing to go through. I’ve never been through that, but that had to be such a traumatic thing for any kid to go through. I did resonate with how his family labeled him a peculiar kid. He was smart, he had different interests. I experienced that growing up, not from my family, but the neighborhood. There weren’t too many kids going to piano lessons on Saturday and who had a father who sang opera. [Joseph Oliver Blanchard] I don’t know how to explain it. I knew those things were different, but it didn’t mean I hated those things. I loved opera. I knew others wouldn’t listen to it. I can see the same thing in Charles, his character. That’s what resonated. When you’re a kid you don’t know which way your life is going to go, but you can look back and look at those as an amalgamation of all those events.

Memoirs cover a lot of ground. How did you as Kasi Lemmons narrow the focus to make a manageable story for the opera?

A lot of that was due to Kasi. We did have a meeting with Charles Blow at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis where we sat down and talked to him and let him talk to us. He was open about major events in his life. Kasi used that session as a springboard to send her in a direction.

This is your second opera. What does writing for that form offer you that your other writing does not?

It’s different in that I have more control of the creative process. When I’m working on a film I’m helping someone else do a story. When it’s the E-Collective, it’s my own thing, but it’s within the confines of that sonic palette. With opera I have words, voices and a full orchestra at my disposal. The wild thing about it is I sit in my room and in my studio and create this music. Then you get to the point where singers are moving about the stage. It’s a phenomenal experience. Every time when we’ve gotten to this stage it blows my mind. I don’t know. It takes so much energy. One of the singers said to me, “For your third opera” and I said “Whoa. Slow your roll. This is a lot of work.”

Charles Blow said, “Trying hard and working hard is its own reward. It feeds the soul. It affirms your will and your power. And it radiates from you, lighting the way for all those who see you.” Do you agree and how does that apply to your career and life to date?

Oh yeah. This is what I try to tell my students. If you have passion for something and you work hard and study hard and put forth the effort, the sky’s the limit. One thing I believe as an artist is when you’re honest about what you are creating, you are creating something that will touch other people who are dealing with the same issues. How many times have you heard, “That songs speak to my soul?” Or “I went to a performance I was swept away and was in tears?” That only comes from people who are honest about what they do. To get there you have to get over the hump of technique and theory. You learn and you refine, but those are just tools to where we can speak clearly in a musical fashion.

Main Photo:  Walter Russell III and Will Liverman in Fire Shut Up in my Bones

Photos from Fire Shut Up in my Bones by Ken Howard/Courtesy Metropolitan Opera

The post Fire Shut Up in my Bones – Terence Blanchard’s Second Opera appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Given the diverse amount of things on his plate, I figured this was a good time to catch up with Blanchard. It had been four years since our last conversation and a lot has changed, both with his career and our country. He spoke to me by phone from St. Louis where he was about to see the first full rehearsal with singers and orchestra (called a “sitzprobe”) of the opera.

When we last spoke you and the E-Collective had just started collaborating. You had the album Breathless coming out. The title being a reference to Eric Garner’s last words when he died in a chokehold by a New York police officer.  Subsequently you released a live album with them called Live, which found you and the band in cities where the abuse of power was at its most extreme.

What did playing in those cities give you as an artist and human that helps shape your perspective on America in 2019?

The best example I can give you how powerful that was is we were playing in Cleveland. A guy walked up afterwards and I thought it was going to be the normal conversation, “Why aren’t you playing with a jazz band instead of an electric band.” Instead he said, “I thought I was going to hear A Tale of God’s Will, but once you started playing it sounded angry.” Then he said “During the break you told us what the music was about. As I started listening to the rest of the show, my thoughts went when the guy who created God’s Will is this angry, then I have to rethink my position on gun control.” For him to share that with me was an extremely powerful moment.

[Note: A Tale of God’s Will had the subtitle Requiem for Katrina. This was music written for Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.]

Jazz musicians seem to be addressing social injustice more prominently than other genres. Vijay Iyer’s Far From Over, for example does that. And the  music seems more muscular. Why does jazz seem to be leading the call for change as it relates to social justice?

I think it’s always bene that way. You look at Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite, the stuff [Charles] Mingus was doing, Miles [Davis] doing Jack Johnson. Even Louis Armstrong. He didn’t create some of the music, but he talked about it in some of his interviews. I think jazz musicians have a way of dealing with truth that is inherent in the music itself. In order to be a jazz musicians, you can’t lie to yourself. Either you are playing the  scales and chords or you are not. Dealing with that type of absolute truth all the time carries over into your life. It makes you look at things with that kind of prism, if you will. Two plus two will always equal four – you can’t spin that into anything else. When you look at the social justice system, it’s rough.

The festival happens one week before the premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Is the festival a great opportunity to take a break and clear your head for a few moments?

Oh man, Playboy is just a good time to be there any time of the year. There are certain music festivals like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage –  Playboy is where you get to see many of your peers. I enjoy the shows just as much as the audience. It’s a great atmosphere to hear music and run into friends.

Singer Quiana Lynell is joining you for the Playboy Jazz Festival. You’ve mentored her after she showed up to join you for a gig in Poland at your manager’s suggestion. What does mentoring mean to you personally?

It’s huge. Huge. Because it is the mentors that actually open the doors for you and take you in and show you around. If you don’t get a chance to see how sausage is made, you’ll never be able to do it. You can approximate it, but it takes a huge role in being able to know down the myths, the folklore and just deal with the absolute truth. That’s what Art Blakey did for me. And by being in that band, automatically you were accepted in a family of musicians that would embrace you. Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Woody Shaw; all of them were extremely helpful to me.

What are some of those myths and folklore?

I guess mainly the thing is intuitive talent versus the hard work kind of things. When I got into the business I heard stories about how hard Dizzy and Clifford Brown worked. I even talked to Chick Corea about it. He said, “It ain’t no magic. It just takes a lot of time and practice.” That was one of the first lessons I really got to understand.

Next week will have part two of our interview with Terence Blanchard where he gets into details about Fire Shut Up in My Bones and its creation.

The post Terence Blanchard: From Jazz to Opera in One Week appeared first on Cultural Attaché.