“In the role of Radamès, the ill-fated commander who loves Aida, Brian Jagde displayed superb power and focus, but also was able to dial down that Wagner-sized tenor a bit in his more tender scenes with Aida.” A heroic Italian-style tenor to the marrow, he makes an ardent, boyish Radamès. at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, NM.The discovery of the night was the Radamès, Brian Jagde, his voice bold, bright, and resonant, effortlessly hall-filling. Performances are Friday, October 28 at 7 p.m. Opera for All Voices, a consortium of regional companies that includes the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Minnesota Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, The Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, Sarasota Opera and Seattle Opera, awarded its second commission to Professor Carter in 2018 to write this work. This Little Light of Mine features music by Professor Carter and libretto by Diana Solomon-Glover. The drama ends as it began, with the song of hope, “This Little Light of Mine,” still haunted by the reality of an unjust world. Adopted daughter Dorothy Jean narrates her mother’s harrowing life story, but also embodies the general malaise of malnutrition and medical neglect that continue to afflict her community. Describing her harrowing story of harassment, arrest and beating by the police, Hamer pointedly asked: “Is this America?” Her personal sacrifices leading up to that moment imbued Hamer with an unassailable moral authority and her explosive testimony sent shockwaves throughout the nation. The opera is centered on Hamer’s appeal to the Convention’s Credentials Committee to replace Mississippi’s all-white delegation with that of the interracial Freedom Democratic Party. As a black woman of humble origins, she spoke truth to power as perhaps no other civil rights leader.

The Santa Fe Opera and the Lensic Performing Arts Center are presenting the premiere of This Little Light of Mine, a one-act opera by Professor of Music Chandler Carter, dramatizing the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a former sharecropper who rose to national prominence at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Seattle opera 2018