<p>My daughter and I attended a performance of a new opera, “Margaret Garner” last night at the Detroit Opera House. It’s based on an actual historial event and composed by Richard Danielpour with the libretto written by Toni Morrison.</p>
<p>Although we came away feeling there were some rocky patches (stagnant staging, a bit too much recitative [more arias, please :)], and some pacing issues), overall we thought it was a positive and important experience. The commissioning was joint project of the Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. I also believe it’s going to be a part of the Opera Carolina schedule in the fall. If you get a chance to see, I recommend it. </p>
<p>One of the things we found quite interesting is the amount of conversation generated amongst the audience. Our experience with our opera house is that there is generally some polite conversation with your neighbor during intermission, but it’s generally quite limited. We found people really engaging with one another during intermission; talking about some of the issues raised and the differences/similarities in reactions between the white audience members and African-American audience members.</p>
<p>And Denyce Graves and Angela Brown were awesome…!</p>