Singer

In 1943, the National Negro Opera Company is set to perform on a floating barge to evade racially-segregated venues. But when bad weather threatens—pushing the performance to a segregated performance hall—visionary impressaria Mary Cardwell Dawson must find a way forward.

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The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Master Class: Denyce Graves, Voice

Centre Street Performance Studio

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson makes its highly anticipated mainstage premiere to celebrate the remarkable founder of the historic and groundbreaking National Negro Opera Company, established in 1941. Starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role, this play with music by Mark Twain Award-winning playwright Sandra Seaton includes selections from the repertory of the National Negro Opera Company and original music composed by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence and 2023 Grammy nominee Carlos Simon.

Central Piedmont Community College

Master Class: Denyce Graves, Voice 2023

Leakin Hall

Would you renounce love to become all powerful? The Nibelung Alberich steals enchanted gold to craft a ring which allows him to do just that. Yet the corruptive power won’t be his forever as gods and giants discover how far they will go to possess the cursed ring. Brother kills brother, the innocent are enslaved, and the King of Gods must decide where his power truly lies.

Bass-baritone and Wagner veteran Greer Grimsley returns as Wotan alongside Frederick Ballentine, Michael Mayes, and Kenneth Kellogg in their first Seattle Opera Wagner production. Internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves makes her Seattle Opera debut as the earth goddess Erda.

Das Rheingold

Seattle Center

Visionary impresaria Mary Cardwell Dawson fights and triumphs as she establishes the National Negro Opera Company in Carlos Simon and Sandra Seaton’s new play with music.

She trained hundreds of African American youth to sing. She founded the longest-running, all-Black opera company. She organized opera guilds in the country’s biggest cities. Mary Cardwell Dawson’s dream to bring music to African American audiences came true—and it changed the future of opera.

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson makes its highly anticipated mainstage premiere to celebrate the remarkable founder of the historic and groundbreaking National Negro Opera Company, established in 1941. Starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role, this play with music by Mark Twain Award-winning playwright Sandra Seaton includes selections from the repertory of the National Negro Opera Company and original music composed by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence and 2023 Grammy nominee Carlos Simon.

The story starts in Washington, D.C. in 1943, where the company is set to perform on a floating barge to evade racially-segregated venues. But when bad weather threatens—pushing the performance to a segregated performance hall—Mary Cardwell Dawson must find a way forward.

Kennedy Center

Renée Fleming makes her highly anticipated return to the Met in the world-premiere production of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts’s The Hours, adapted from Michael Cunningham’s acclaimed novel. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and made a household name by the Oscar-winning 2002 film version starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman, the powerful story concerns three women from different eras who each grapple with their inner demons and their roles in society. The exciting premiere radiates with star power, with Kelli O’Hara and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato joining Fleming as the opera’s trio of heroines. Phelim McDermott—who most recently wowed Met audiences with his staging of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten—directs this compelling drama, with Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin on the podium to conduct Puts’s poignant and powerful score.

Denyce Graves

Mezzo-soprano

Events

Apr 27 - May 5, 2024

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson · Pittsburgh Opera

Mar 26, 2024

Master Class: Denyce Graves, Voice · Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

15 - 17 Feb, 2024

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson · Opera Carolina

Nov 8, 2023

Master Class: Denyce Graves, Voice 2023 · Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

12 - 20 Aug, 2023

Das Rheingold · Seattle Opera

About

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