MasterVoices | Robin Guarino, Director | Ted Sperling, Conductor
Music by Scott Davenport Richards
Libretto by David Cote
Based on the book Blind Injustice by Mark Godsey and casework by the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law
At last, New York audiences have the chance to experience this riveting 2019 opera based on the true stories of six people, still living, who were unjustly accused and wrongfully imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. Each was ultimately exonerated.
Based on the eponymous book by Mark Godsey and casework by the Ohio Innocence Project, a 12-member cast brings us the exonerees’ stories in their own words, adapted by librettist David Cote to be both spoken and sung. Composer Scott Davenport Richards’ score calls on jazz, funk, and hip-hop to help convey the stories’ vastness and their particularity – the twisting of a child’s words, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, bearing a passing resemblance to someone else. Commissioned by Cincinnati Opera in 2019, it has only grown more relevant since its premiere. Learn more.
Tickets, priced from $30, are on sale on November 11, 2024, and may be purchased online at jazz.org, at the Jazz at Lincoln Center box office, Broadway at 60th Street, or by calling 212-721-6500.
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The opera’s premiere in Cincinnati played to sold-out houses and national critical acclaim. The live recording was cited as one of the 5 Best New Opera Recordings of 2022 by Opera News.
In February 2024, BLIND INJUSTICE was presented by PEAK Performances at Montclair State University, with Ted Sperling conducting. Deeply moved by the piece, he and the creative team realized that using the larger MasterVoices chorus would make the choral role even more poignant as it represents the “whole world” context behind each exoneree – at times, making it feel like the whole world is against them, and at other times, that the whole world is there to set them free. Original director and dramaturg Robin Guarino, who also directed the piece in Montclair, will be joining us for the NYC premiere.
Click here to read the press release for the 2024-2025 Concert Season.