Champion

Met Premiere

Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021–22. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for Blanchard’s second Met premiere, also reuniting the director-and-choreographer team of James Robinson and Camille A. Brown.

Librettist: Michael Cristofer

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Production: James Robinson

Set Designer: Allen Moyer

Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell

Lighting Designer: Donald Holder

Projection Designer: Greg Emetaz

Choreographer: Camille A. Brown