OPERAWIRE: Brian Jagde, Juyeon Song, & Laura Strickling Headline New CD/DVD Releases
OPERAWIRE: Brian Jagde, Juyeon Song, & Laura Strickling Headline New CD/DVD Releases
BY FRANCISCO SALAZAR
“New Amsterdam Records releases the new mono-opera written by Joseph C. Phillips Jr. The recording features the ensemble Numinous and soloists soprano Rebecca L Hargrove and narrator Kenneth Browning.
In a press release, Phillips noted ‘The Grey Land’ is ‘a story of a Black mother trying to survive the reality in this land that doesn’t fully see her continued hope: that the great American experiment will one day become a belonging place where anyone can dream of ‘stillness and stars’ free from fear and want; a place where the beautiful promise of happiness, liberty, and life may yet manifest true to finally include her family too.’
The work features a libretto written by Phillips and uses texts from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, author Isaac Butler, Abolitionist Frederick Douglas and Mothers of the Movement, an organization founded in 2013 by Black mothers after George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin and dedicated to fighting police and gun violence.”