Artist

Admin

Conductor

Jonathan Taylor Rush

Joseph Young

Stage director

Tazewell Thompson

Singer

Mezzo-soprano

Briana Hunter

The Mother

Tenor

Aaron Crouch

The Son

Bass

Kenneth Kellogg

The Father

Baritone

Joshua Conyers

The Reverend

Camron Gray

Policeman 1/Congregant 1

Jonathan Pierce Rhodes

Policeman 2/Congregant 2

Christian Simmons

Policeman 3/Congregant 3

Soprano

Ariana Wehr

Girlfriend 1/Nurse/Congregant 1

Katerina Burton

Girlfriend 2/Congregant 2

Rehanna Thelwell

Girlfriend 3/Congregant 3

Set designer

Donald Eastman

Costume designer

Jessica Jahn

Makeup artist

Anika Seitu

Hairstylist

Lighting designer

Robert Wierzel

Washington National Opera

Orchestra

The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra

English

Cristian Damir Martinez Vega

Blue

Public

Opera

Approved

How do you protect a child born into danger?
“Best New Opera of 2020” (The Music Critics Association of North America)
Music by Jeanine Tesori / Libretto by Tazewell Thompson
In English with Projected English Titles
New Production, Co-Produced with The Glimmerglass Festival and Lyric Opera of Chicago

In Harlem, a couple celebrates the birth of their firstborn—a boy, Black and beautiful. As the mother worries for her son’s future in today’s America, the father wrestles with his role as a police officer, a “Black man in blue.” When the unimaginable happens years later and a white officer kills the son, their deepest fears will come true.

Following its postponement in our 2020–2021 season, WNO presents the long-awaited D.C. premiere of Blue, the “Best New Opera of 2020” (The Music Critics Association of North America). Tony Award®–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and NAACP Theatre Award–winning librettist Tazewell Thompson’s new opera is inspired by contemporary events and Black literature, including Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Jeanine’s signature genre-blending style captures the grief of a community, the bonds of a family, and the vulnerabilities of protecting a child. By giving voice to the joy and pain of families that are often unheard, Blue places timely issues at the forefront of modern opera and invites audiences to the emotional epicenter of their impact.

Blue by Tesori, From (2023/2023), Directed by Tazewell Thompson,, Conductor Jonathan Taylor Rush, Joseph Young

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Reviews

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues