The Metropolitan Opera: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
Overview
Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, is Malcolm, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.
Key Crew
Writer: Thulani Davis
Story: Christopher Davis
Director: Robert O'Hara
Top Cast
Leah Hawkins
Louise/Betty
Raehann Bryce-Davis
Ella / Queen Mother
Victor Ryan Robertson
Elijah/Street
Will Liverman
Malcolm
Michael Sumuel
Reginald
Angela Bassett
Host
Bryce Christian Thompson
Young Malcolm
Videos
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X: Trailer
The Met Live in HD: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X | November 18 & 29
