Met Opera: Champion
$49-$483
- The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
- Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone (Young Emile Griffith)
- Latonia Moore, soprano (Emelda Griffith)
- Eric Owens, bass-baritone (Emile Griffith)
- Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano (Kathy Hagen)
- Paul Groves, tenor (Howie Albert)
- Eric Greene, baritone (Benny "Kid" Paret)
When Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones opened the Met's 2021–22 season to universal acclaim, it marked a historic moment in the annals of the company. Now, the six-time Grammy Award–winning composer's operatic retelling of the dramatic story of boxer Emile Griffith arrives in New York. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green stars as the closeted young hatmaker-turned-prizefighter, who rises from obscurity to become world champion and, in one of the great tragedies in sports history, kills his homophobic archrival in the ring. Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a stellar cast that also features bass-baritone Eric Owens as Griffith's older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer's estranged mother, alongside mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as bar owner Kathy Hagen. Director James Robinson—whose productions of Fire and Porgy and Bess brought down the house—oversees the staging, and Camille A. Brown, whose choreography electrified audiences in Fire and Porgy, also returns.
Content Advisory: Champion contains adult themes, sexually explicit language, and physical violence.
About Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone (Young Emile Griffith)
About Latonia Moore, soprano (Emelda Griffith)
About Eric Owens, bass-baritone (Emile Griffith)
About Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano (Kathy Hagen)
About Paul Groves, tenor (Howie Albert)
https://www.metopera.org/discover/artists/tenor/paul-groves/