CHICAGO | On the evening of Saturday, February 3, we went to the Lyric Opera in the loop to see Champion, an opera composed by Terence Blanchard and written by Michael Cristofer. Based on the real-life boxer Emile Griffith, the opera follows his life from his childhood in the Caribbean to the rise and fall of his boxing career in America using three singers to represent Emile in different phases of his life: Little Emile (as a child), Young Emile (during his boxing career) and Older Emile (nearing the end of his life).
The story jumps around in time and the three “versions” of Emile overlap and interact. In the opening act, we see Emile’s tough childhood before moving to New York, where he begins boxing and explores his queer sexuality in the thick of Jim Crow before rocketing to athletic success. After one fateful match, Emile learns that Kid Paret — his opponent who fell into a coma after Emile knocked him out — died as a result of his boxing injuries. This haunts Emile for the rest of his life, and he grapples with it in the rest of the opera. As Emile’s boxing career begins to decline, the narrative jumps ahead to Older Emile; reexamining his past as he suffers from pugilistic dementia.
Several aspects of Champion set it apart from the operas typically performed at the Lyric. It is a new work from 2014, in English (with lots of profanity), and it centers on an underrepresented narrative of a Black queer man in America. Terence Blanchard, who wrote all of the music, is first and foremost a jazz trumpeter and composer, and that was certainly reflected in the intermingling of jazz and opera in the music. At first the operatic vocals felt disjointed with the jazzy orchestra, however the hybridization really grows on you as the opera progresses. Blanchard injected jazz harmony into the orchestration and occasional blues inflections into the vocals. While some sections of music had a more traditional underscoring in the orchestra — which felt appropriate at times — others let a jazz rhythm section lay down an infectious groove to back up bold choreography. It was unclear whether bits of the music were improvised or if it was all written out.
On top of a compelling and unique story and fantastic music, visually, Champion can only be described as stunning. The Lyric Opera is a beautifully ornate historic building on its own, but the intricate and lavish gold trim draws you to the stage where the sets blow you away. They combined colorful physical sets with magnificent digital photography and video on huge screens hung to border the stage. This, in conjunction with crisp choreography and inventive lighting, makes for a dynamic visual indulgence that enhances your experience of the sound.
This was really the first opera we have seen, so we asked another patron, Katy Meffert, who has more experience with opera what she thought of the show and how it compared to other operas she has seen.
“Completely different style, completely different set, because we’re used to older, Romantic era operas. It was really unique. The music was nothing I’ve heard before. They did a really good job of blending classical and jazz together with operatic singing,” said Meffert.
The story itself is not only engaging, but incredibly important as it examines America’s mistreatment of Black queer men. Naomi Andre writes: “In Champion we see how blackness, boxing, and manhood can unexpectedly, and eloquently be expressed in the expansive genre of opera.” One of Emile’s most powerful lines bluntly confronts the audience with our history of violence against the queer community in America. He sings “I killed a man and the world forgave me. I loved a man and the world wanted to kill me.”
The opera is bookended with scenes of Older Emile struggling with his dementia. He ponders “This is my shoe. Where does it go? It goes where I go. Where do I go?” At first, this seems to only serve as representation of his memory loss and brain damage, but when examined more closely, it provokes not only the question of where does the retired, damaged, boxer belong in society, but also, more importantly, where does the queer Black man fit in America.
On February 4, the day after we saw the show, the Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Champion won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Champion is at the Lyric through February 11. See it before it’s gone!
All photos by Ella Grace and Aryanna Rent