September 27 will be an historic night for opera lovers: the Metropolitan Opera, the largest performing arts company in the nation, will open its season after the long pandemic shut-down with “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts since its development period, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” is based on the memoir by Charles Blow. It’s composed by jazz great Terence Blanchard with a libretto by Kasi Lemmons, and it is the first opera by a Black composer to be performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Angel Blue will be starring along with baritone Will Liverman. It’s the second time Angel Blue has opened the season for the Metropolitan Opera: in 2019, she was Bess in the Grammy-winning production of “Porgy and Bess”—a role in which she shone. But shining on stage is what Blue does as a singer and as an actress. For the past decade and a half, Blue has performed to great acclaim in opera houses around the world and in a variety of roles. Now, she has emerged as one of the most vibrant sopranos performing today. Her voice has been praised for its “shimmering beauty” that is “always perfectly controlled and consistent throughout her expansive range.” In this podcast, Angel Blue and I talk about opera and its joys, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” her career in Europe, her first-time performing at the Met, and her thoughts about DEI and opera.
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