APRIL 28 • 2022 | 9

duction of Anthony Davis’ opera 
X: The Life and Times of Malcolm 
X, directed by Robert O’Hara. 
Since its premiere in 1986, Davis 
has since gone on to win the 
Pulitzer Prize for music, but his 
first opera is such a wellspring 
of inspiration and audacity that 
it has come to be acknowledged 
as an undeniable masterpiece of 
American music. The brilliance 
of the score and the relevance of 
the subject matter have attracted 
widespread interest among other 
companies, and since announc-
ing our production, we’ve been 
joined by the Metropolitan 
Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, 
Opera Omaha and Seattle Opera 
to co-produce this work. 

PREPARING FOR X: THE 
LIFE AND TIMES OF 
MALCOLM X
Preparing for this opera 
brought back my memory of 
those photographs of Rabbi 
Heschel and Rev. King — 
although, of course, Malcolm 
X and MLK Jr. have been too 
easily reduced to an unten-
able opposition. Both men are 
undergoing serious reevalu-
ations at a critical moment 
in our cultural history: the 
saintly image of Dr. King “the 
dreamer” has been an exploit-
ative tool for maintaining a 
racist status quo, as Ibram X. 
Kendi argued so convincingly 
in his 2021 essay “The Second 
Assassination of Martin Luther 
King Jr.” 
And in his extraordinary 
study The Sword and the Shield: 
The Revolutionary Lives of 
Malcolm X and Martin Luther 
King Jr., Peniel Joseph braids 
their two lives together to 
argue that, rather than offering 
opposing views, the men had 
“convergent visions” that make 
them two sides of the same 
coin. Joseph cogently shifts the 
opposition away from non-vio-
lence versus violence and toward 
non-violence versus self-defense — 
a crucial point in understanding 

Malcolm X. 
 Malcolm X’s legacy has also 
seen an extraordinary recon-
sideration in popular culture, 
with common misperceptions 
undergoing a corrective lens. An 
invaluable contribution to our 
understanding of this iconic life 
is Les Payne and Tamara Payne’s 
National Book Award-winning 
biography The Dead are Arising, 
which deftly shows how much 
Malcolm’s legacy is shrouded in 
misunderstandings or partial 
views. 
Back in 1986, however, Davis 
and his cousin Thulani Davis, 
the opera’s librettist, already 
knew how to make the most 
inspiring aspects of Malcolm 
X’s life into a powerful piece of 
theater. Focusing on Malcolm 
X’s spiritual evolution, the opera 
does not stop at the more sensa-
tional details of his story, taking 
us instead to his ultimate awak-
ening, as Malik Shabazz, on a 
pilgrimage to Mecca and back, at 
the start of a new quest tragically 
cut short. 
One of the most startling 
lines in Thulani Davis’ libretto 
is in Malcolm’s Act I aria: “
As 
long as I’ve been living / You’ve 
had your foot on me, / Always 
pressing.
” 
The parallels to the murders 
of George Floyd and Breonna 
Taylor can feel crushing: has our 
society really evolved so little 
since this opera was first per-
formed? 
The fact that Malcolm X 
didn’t stop at that sentiment of 
subjugation but instead embod-
ied a vision of empowerment 
is part of what makes him an 
essential figure in the fight 
for a more just society. It is a 
story that demands all of our 
attention and for all of us to 
participate. 
Or, as Malcolm X frequently 
said, “We have to change our 
minds about each other.
” 

Yuval Sharon is the Gary L. 
Wasserman Artistic Director of Detroit 
Opera.

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

6735 TELEGRAPH ROAD, SUITE 300 • BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICHIGAN 48301

@HFLDetroit

Community donations help Hebrew Free Loan give 
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STORY
My

STORY
My

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