Opera Based on the Fisk Jubilee Singers to Debut in Seattle This October

SEATTLE— In October,& Seattle Opera& audiences will experience a unique new work by visionary& writer and director Tazewell Thompson, whose opera& Blue& was hailed by& The New York Times& as “the most elegant libretto heard in a long time.”& Jubilee& tells the story of a group of Black American singers who brought African American spirituals to audiences around the world, forever changing the trajectory of music history. With a score comprising over 40 spirituals, from “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Wade in the Water” to “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” and “Balm in Gilead,” the opera follows the& Fisk Jubilee Singers& as they embark on their first tours, raising money for the fledgling Fisk University. Founded just after Emancipation and the American Civil War, the university offered education and empowerment to newly freed Black Americans. The ensemble served as ambassadors and fundraisers, performing for audiences and dignitaries across the United States and Europe, including Queen Victoria, Mark Twain, and President Ulysses S. Grant, establishing a legacy that continues to the present day. “Spirituals formed the foundation of gospel, blues, jazz, R&B and even hip-hop—and the Jubilees introduced this music to the world,” said Thompson, who began studying and collecting spirituals...