Seattle Opera Premieres Tazewell Thompson’s Jubilee • October 2024
Seattle, Washington
Photo by Sunny Martini
Seattle Opera presents the world premiere of Jubilee, a new opera created by visionary writer and director Tazewell Thompson about the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Set just after Emancipation, the opera follows the intrepid group of young musicians who brought African American spirituals to audiences around the globe, forever changing the trajectory of music history.
“The Jubilees introduced spirituals to the world, and their fundraising concerts were directly responsible for the survival of one of America’s earliest Black universities,” said Thompson, who began studying and collecting spirituals over 30 years ago. “The Jubilees put their lives on the line quite literally, going without food, freezing in the winter, suffering from illness and violent hostility on a punishing tour schedule – because they knew that education was the path to real power and lasting freedom.”
Opera Now: How Jubilee is bringing spirituals to the opera stage
Opera Magazine: Bringing ‘Jubilee’ to opera
Seattle Times: Classical Fall Arts Preview
OperaWire: Artist of the Week: Aundi Marie Moore
KNKX: Seattle Opera’s ‘Jubilee’ puts spirituals in the spotlight
King 5 News: Seattle Opera performs ‘Steal Away’ from Jubilee
KIRO 7 News: ‘Jubilee’ has world premiere at Seattle Opera
Music City Review: Actress Lisa Arrindell and ‘Jubilee’
FOX 13 Seattle: ‘Jubilee’ now showing at Seattle Opera
I Care If You Listen: 5 Questions to Tazewell Thompson
Converge: A Celebration of Music, History, and the Human Spirit
KUOW: Seattle Opera brings the spiritual to the stage in 'Jubilee'
Seattle Times: RAVE to Seattle Opera’s production of ‘Jubilee’
Critical Acclaim
Photo by Sunni Martini
“It’s instantly apparent from the opening moments of ‘Jubilee’ what this work honors. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were a group of talented vocalists who decided to use their voices to keep the school funded, after it was in danger of closing, by going on tour, with spirituals forming the backbone of their performances. ‘Jubilee’ takes the audience on that journey from the basement rehearsal room to, eventually, Buckingham Palace, celebrating the beauty of spirituals along the way. In ‘Jubilee,’ spirituals are the vehicle through which we access the inner worlds of the Jubilee Singers, and the hardships they endured. The beauty of the spirituals — the music is almost entirely traditional spirituals, orchestrated by Michael Ellis Ingram — shines through. Vocal arranger Dianne Adams McDowell breathes fresh life into these spirituals by adding elements of blues, gospel and R&B — all genres that were born out of spirituals. The characters of ‘Jubilee’ navigated the uncertainty of the future the best way they knew how: They raised their voices and shared their music. By sharing the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, and the beauty and meaning of spirituals, ‘Jubilee’ provides inspiration as we ourselves navigate an uncertain future.”
–Seattle Times
“Rather than following the classic operatic formula, Thompson and his collaborators eschew sung dialogue and spirituals form the backbone of their music. Thompson wove the two together in a manner that allows the action to demonstrate each spiritual’s raison d’être. For this reason, spirituals of hardship, pain, loss, grief, and faith that transcends adversity dominate the opera’s first half. As the timeline moves forward and the singers achieve success, the spirituals become far more celebratory in nature. The beating sequence, which showed the all-Black cast at its acting finest, was especially powerful. McDowell’s music and Ingram’s orchestrations were quite lovely, while conductor Kellen Gray and creator-director Thompson kept the action moving and the eye and ear engaged.”
–Classical Voice North America
“The tale unfolds through a maze of beautifully realized choral settings. Notable set pieces include the discovery of slave chains, shackles, and muzzles unearthed in the singers’ vegetable garden, and a savage beating the group suffers at the hands of a white mob, effectively mimed and violently realized in the orchestra. We see into the group’s future upon their return to America, and it’s easy to see the connection between Spiritual and Gospel, Gospel and Soul. This is a rare creature, an opera about a chorus. Composer Ingram undertook a near impossible task: respect the lapidary choral arrangements of the musical while providing enough of an orchestral sound world to transform the work into an opera. His orchestrations were played to fine effect by the pit orchestra, which responded well to Gray’s graceful baton, and McDowell’s superb choral arrangements. Jubilee tells a compelling story, and it must be seen.”
–Post Alley
“Glorious stretches of music bear up the story of the first three tours of the Jubilee Singers. It elicited and stirred the audience to quiet agreement, a chorus of ‘oh, yes, sir’ and ‘no, m’am.’ One could really see how the spiritual met the needs of the people who made it, and who were there for it. And the singing is wonderful, with connections to the black theatre of the 19th century and jazz. An enjoyable evening and one that continued the work of exploring black tradition and history through song. Jubilee certainly has its own future, with a tough and heartfelt story to tell.”
–British Theatre Guide
“A wonderful and uniquely American new work… So many of these great songs have become standards of American music that it’s easy to forget their origins in the miseries of this historic crime. The audience had the joy of hearing these songs anew (in gorgeous vocal arrangements by McDowell), along with a great many less familiar spirituals, sung by a troupe of superlative singers. At some point, the demanding ‘Didn’t My Love Deliver Daniel’ rehearsal turns into a concert performance, with the audience taking on the role of the original attendees. It is a magical and moving concept. Just as magical was the orchestra. Gray deployed eloquent gestures to guide the musicians through a veritable catalog of styles. The orchestration by Ingram covers moods from raucous to dangerous to sublime. The final scene, which reveals the life course of each original Jubilee member to the strains of ‘Do Lord, Do Remember Me,' is particularly moving.”
–Seattle Gay News
“There was a minimalist approach to staging and costumes. This approach not only allows the viewer to focus on the story, but it also foreshadows that the Jubilees’ greatest possessions were not materials. Rather it was their relationship to their beautiful melodies. Thompson, did a wonderful job intertwining the concert spiritual into the storyline of the opera, and it was rather refreshing to see how the humanity of each individual was portrayed. This body of work is imperative in the rejuvenation and continuation of concert spirituals.”
–Music City Review
“With his superb libretto, Thompson shows great commitment to the significance and contribution of the Fisk Singers. Jubilee features 13 singers performing spirituals that form a living legacy, historically familiar but not often heard on the opera stage. These pieces remain iconic symbols of American music through the ages. Emblematic tunes like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Wade in the Water, Balm in Gilead and Deep River, beautifully set forth by McDowell, provided inspiration for the listener and were sung either gently or forcefully, depending on their texts. Some of the numbers were fiendishly difficult with respect to quick tempi and the need for multiple breaths in succession. The ensemble were represented by a cast of outstanding African American singers who were consistent in the quality of their voices, the deep feelings they displayed in their interpretations and their sheer joy. When singing a cappella , they succeeded in carrying the show by dint of sheer vocal beauty, appealing movements and gestures, and sincere emotional outreach. Each singer among the exceptional cast displayed their unique quality to stand out individually, yet all the voices blended perfectly in their ensembles. The power of their collective sound kept the audience riveted to the end. The premiere proved a triumph as the company transitions to a new era. "
–Bachtrack
“‘The most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas’ is how W E B Du Bois characterised the African American spiritual – and his encomium to the genre finds moving validation in Thompson’s new opera Jubilee. Celebrating both the beauty and the balm that spirituals communicate, Jubilee uses their remarkable malleability to honour the courage and resilience of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. McDowell used Thompson’s dramatic cues to determine the particular harmonic colourations of her new settings, which dazzle with their variety and dramatic aptness. Though he’s listed as ‘orchestrator’, Ingram should get more credit for enhancing the atmosphere and emotional resonance of the source material: using a standard opera orchestra, he also supplies an overture and connective musical tissue as underscoring for spoken dialogue. Thompson’s labour of love seems likely to travel well. As you would expect, Jubilee is a quintessentially ensemble opera, for which Thompson assembled an excellent cast of 13 singers, most of them making their Seattle Opera debuts. The traveling ensemble is itself the protagonist, singing spirituals at times as a diegetic part of the action, at others as an allegorical response to a moment of reflection or crisis situation, not unlike a Greek chorus – and, in a memorable sequence involving ‘Wade in the Water’, in a way reminiscent of the layered meanings of spirituals, which could be used as coded messages against the oppressing enslavers.”
–Opera Now