Composer, vocalist, and performing and recording artist Tamar-kali presents concert performance excerpts from The Swann — an opera she is developing featuring a libretto by Harlem Stage Associate Artistic Director and Curator-in-Residence, Carl Hancock Rux, about the life and times of William Dorsey Swann, the first known person to identify as a “queen of drag.” A formerly enslaved denizen of our nation’s capital, Swann was the first American on record to pursue legal and political action to defend the LGBTQ+ community’s right to gather. Set during his detention and conviction in 1896 for “keeping a disorderly house,” a criminal charge often levied against those who ran brothels, the opera explores the interior of Swann’s mind as inquest, analysis, and detainment begin to take their toll.

Waterworks Established Artist Commission: Tamar-kali—the Swann, Carl Hancock Rux, Libretto

Harlem Stage

Swann is an digital aria based on the legacy of William Dorsey Swann, a lesser known but crucial historical figure born into slavery in 1860. Swann came to be the first self-identified “queen of drag” in the US. He organized drag balls in Washington, DC in the latter part of the 19th century, and his arrest was the first in documented history for female impersonation. Swann was also the first American on record to pursue legal action to defend the right of LGBTQ people to gather. In this digitally native work, Tamar-kali and librettist Carl Hancock Rux present two worldviews to us simultaneously: one, a joyful party hosted by Swann, with his sentiments spoken by a rich baritone voice; and the other, the Voice of Judgement, the arresting officer, is hauntingly sung by a countertenor. Though the two world views are unreconcilable, here they coexist.

Swann

Meet King Xerxes

He’s the most powerful man in Persia, so why can’t he get Romilda to marry him? The sensational American countertenor Key’mon Murrah stars in Handel’s tongue-in-cheek 1738 masterpiece about love and the limits of power. Dame Jane Glover conducts, in Tazewell Thompson’s vivid, color-soaked production.

James Blaszko

Events

Past events

3 - 4 May, 2024

Waterworks Established Artist Commission: Tamar-kali—the Swann, Carl Hancock Rux, Libretto · Harlem Stage

10 - 21 Jan, 2024

Swann · Prototype Festival

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