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| © Philip Newton |
Created and directed by Tazewell Thompson
Vocal preparations by Dianne Adams McDowell
Orchestrated by Michael Ellis Ingram
Nineteenth century. A theater in Nashville, Tennessee. 13 members of The Fisk Jubilee Singers are gathering backstage in vocal warmups, making ready to carry out their live performance of Spirituals. Put up present, the singers retreat to the previous army barracks put aside by northern abolitionists to deal with former slaves, now college students and lecturers of The Fisk Coloured Faculty. Finally modified to Fisk College.
Whereas turning over the earth of their pitiful vegetable backyard, their excavation makes a ugly discovery. Buried beneath the floor of the bottom, devices of slavery and bondage: chains; manacles; shackles; harnesses; iron masks and mouth muzzles. The singers promote them for Bibles and spellers. To boost funds for his or her faculty, the singers sing at a girls’ tea, in a trendy a part of Nashville.
They sing for funds in small cities and avenue corners, via all types of climate. Stranded at a railway depot, a jeering white mob assault the singers and beat them, mercilessly. Undaunted, the singers pack their meager belongings and proceed their fundraising excursions. In a church basement observe corridor rehearsal, the singers obtain information of an invite from Queen Victoria to sing at a command efficiency in England. The singers rehearse their program for the Queen.
Intermission
The Fisk Jubilee Singers arrive in London and, at Buckingham Palace, carry out for Queen Victoria. They return dwelling to Tennessee by ship, prepare, and horse-drawn carriage. Within the following years, the lads sing on the Apollo Theater in Harlem, NYC. The ladies sing at a particular church service. The singers collect and pay attention, as a primary recording of The Fisk Jubilee Singers is launched. Within the epilogue we hear their particular person postmortems.
Jubilee runs October 12-25, 2024 at McCaw Corridor. Tickets and information at seattleopera.org/jubilee.
