X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X: Live in HD Transmission Transcript
READ: Bassett Show Intro
ANGELA BASSETT: This is an historic day for the Metropolitan Opera as we present the Live in HD premier of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. I'm Angela Bassett, and I am delighted to be your host. Composer Anthony Davis's epic work captures the life of the fiery civil rights leader from his childhood in Michigan to his assassination in 1965 in New York City, only a few short miles north of this stage. In Spike Lee's biographical film starring Denzel Washington, I played Betty Shabazz, the wife of Malcolm X. So it's a personal thrill to see Malcolm's story come to life to powerfully on the stage at the Met. The idea that X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X would be playing at the Met would have been a long shot until recently.
But X is the third opera by a Black composer to be performed here over the past three seasons. X, which premiered in 1986, was the very first opera by revered composer and jazz man Anthony Davis. He created this groundbreaking work from a story by his brother, Christopher Davis, and set to a libretto by his cousin, the poet and playwright, Thulani Davis. Their interpretation of the life of Malcolm X is having a triumphant return in Anthony's newly revised version directed by Robert O'Hara. Baritone Will Liverman stars as Malcolm, portraying his journey over the course of the operas three acts from petty criminal, Detroit Red, to visionary activist, Malcolm X, to devout Muslim, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.
Soprano Leah Hawkins sings the dual roles of Malcolm's mother, Louise, and wife, Betty. Tenor Victor Ryan Robertson is the hustler, Street, and the Nation of Islam leader, Elijah Muhammad. In this highly original new production, Robert O'Hara frames the opera as an Afrofuturistic vision of the life of Malcolm X, opening with a crash landing of a spaceship right on the Met stage. In another historic first, today's performance is being streamed live into the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, which was one of Malcolm's favorite haunts when he first arrived in New York City as a young man. Maestro Kazem Abdullah is ready in the pit. Here is X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.
INTERVIEW: Bassett w/ Will Liverman
ANGELA BASSETT: Well, bravo.
WILL LIVERMAN: Oh, thank you so much.
ANGELA BASSETT: You don’t appear until the end of Act I. But that aria, powerful, and it just feels like sentiments that are timely today.
WILL LIVERMAN: Absolutely.
ANGELA BASSETT: Tell us more about that moment.
WILL LIVERMAN: Yeah. This aria, like you say, it's so powerful and poignant for several reasons. You know, at this point in the opera, we don’t see the transformation into Malcolm X as a leader just yet. But I think this embodies so much about Malcolm and what he stood for and what he had to offer that was so different than any historical leader of his time, you know, in terms of how soundly and boldly he was able to pinpoint the issues and problems and injustices of Black people during that time and his own injustices and just pinpointing the truth. It's just a powerful and meaningful moment.
ANGELA BASSETT: You know, I know from experience how daunting it can be to play an historical figure, right?
WILL LIVERMAN: Yes, yes, absolutely.
ANGELA BASSETT: I mean, did you ever imagine that you would be portraying Malcolm X?
WILL LIVERMAN: Not in a million years.
ANGELA BASSETT: No?
WILL LIVERMAN: No. If you had told me back in high school that I'd have an opportunity to play the role of Malcolm X at the Met, I probably would have busted out laughing. But it truly, it's a special thing.
ANGELA BASSETT: How did you prepare for the role?
WILL LIVERMAN: I did a lot of research. I read the autobiography. And growing up, I always knew the story of Malcolm X. My dad was a history teacher. So we'd always revisit it. But it wasn't until diving into this role and really reading the biography, looking at the documentaries, of course watching the iconic movie.
ANGELA BASSETT: All right.
WILL LIVERMAN: And just really appreciate all the things that he went through in his life and what he was able to accomplish.
ANGELA BASSETT: Yes. Now I love the music of Anthony Davis.
WILL LIVERMAN: Yeah. Yes, yes, yes.
ANGELA BASSETT: What makes for you the score to rewarding or challenging?
WILL LIVERMAN: It's definitely both.
ANGELA BASSETT: Is it?
WILL LIVERMAN: Probably the hardest thing I think I've ever had to learn in terms of just the rhythmic complexities and the melodic structures. But it is so rewarding. I got a chance, I remember, to hear the orchestra for the first time. And when you really listen closely, it's a masterpiece with all of the things that he incorporates from the evolution of jazz and how Malcolm was so close to jazz. He talks about that a lot. African dance, Wagner and all those things that are mixed in, it just—it really is a rewarding thing when it all clicks. Yeah.
ANGELA BASSETT: Two years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing you star in Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
WILL LIVERMAN: Yeah.
ANGELA BASSETT: The first Black opera by a Black composer in the Met's history. The tide really seems to be turning in terms of Black representation in opera. What's it like to be a part of that?
WILL LIVERMAN: It's a tremendous honor, and something that I feel is one of my callings as an artist, to be a champion of works by BIPOC composers and to be a part of the Met's chapter when we're telling more diverse stories and stories of inclusion. And I realize that I'm standing on the shoulders of the many great artists that have come before me, and so I really hold it in high esteem.
ANGELA BASSETT: Oh, congratulations, Will.
WILL LIVERMAN: Yeah. Thank you.
ANGELA BASSETT: I cannot wait for the rest of your performance today.
WILL LIVERMAN: Thanks so much.
ANGELA BASSETT: Thank you for spending—
WILL LIVERMAN: I really appreciate it.
ANGELA BASSETT: —this time with me.
WILL LIVERMAN: Yeah. Appreciate it.
ANGELA BASSETT: You're welcome.
WILL LIVERMAN: Yeah.
READ: Throw to roll-in
ANGELA BASSETT: With a score by Anthony Davis, a story by his brother, Christopher, and a libretto by their cousin, Thulani, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is truly a family affair. We spoke to the Davises about their collaboration and what it feels like to see X enjoying such a renaissance today.
ROLL-IN C: Anthony, Christopher and Thulani Davis on the Creation of X
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS: My father played classical piano and classical violin growing up. And I remember the day when he bought an upright piano for the house, and that lasted maybe a month, and he wasn't happy with it, and he got a baby grand. Tony just loved it; it was his salvation, actually, playing the piano.
ANTHONY DAVIS: My brother was an actor, and he performed the role of Malcolm X in a play called El Hajj Malik. So I went backstage after his performance and he came up to me and he said, you know, you should do a musical based on Malcolm X because, you know, in the autobiography there's so many references to music.
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS: There's so much music in here, and that there's such a parallel in the development of Malcolm's spirituality and his journey towards Mecca.
ANTHONY DAVIS: So I thought there was a natural connection between his evolution as a man and also the evolution of his political thought with the evolution of the music.
We realized we needed someone to write this, and during that time in the early '80s, I worked closely with my cousin, Thulani Davis, you know, and she's an incredible poet and I wanted to have the same kind of richness of language that she brings and her knowledge, also, of the whole history of African American poetry.
THULANI DAVIS: In 1981 when he asked me about writing the opera, I think both of us knew it would work because by then we had spent a few years performing together and it always worked mood-wise. He always knew what voice I was writing in.
ANTHONY DAVIS: And my brother is very organized and created a story for it, also what the dramatic structure of the opera would be.
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS: I always envisioned it as essentially three parts that I labeled fear, hate and love.
ANTHONY DAVIS: That gave us a very neat and powerful structure. And this idea of it being—the opera being a story of his personal transformation.
THULANI DAVIS: You have to have a sense of it being epic, and that it's a long walk through time.
ANTHONY DAVIS: It was my first opera in 1986. And it was a real learning curve, learning about—learning opera on the fly, how to compose an opera.
THULANI DAVIS: I had to learn so many different tools to write X.
ANTHONY DAVIS: You know, thinking about what, what works and what range of the voice. One rule of thumb that helped me is, I sang everything, you know, which would drive my family nuts. But I would sing so that that at least you know how it feels in the voice.
THULANI DAVIS: I learned a lot about what vowel sounds cannot be understood with what consonants on which notes, particularly high notes.
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS: Thulani and I did a lot of research, brought a lot of materials in for the singers, because we understood that this was part of our lives and it wasn't part of theirs.
THULANI DAVIS: I was a senior in high school when Malcolm was killed. So, I had my own memory of him.
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS: Producers that were interested in it were all thought of it as part of their community outreach. And they were going to put it on some truck and it would be in a park. And we always said, this is big; this deserves your full attention, to have it be a regular part of your repertoire. We were stunned that City Opera was interested.
THULANI DAVIS: When X opened at City Opera, my entire family came. They rode in limousines to get here, in some cases. It was a very fulfilling event for them because none of us ever thought of me writing an opera, having it done in New York City, at Lincoln Center.
ANTHONY DAVIS: I wrote my first opera. That changed my life, that converted me. You know, it made me an opera composer. And I think some of us, you know, that's, that's the way it is. It's like you caught a virus or something. You just have to, you have to do it.
CHRISTOPHER DAVIS: And then fortunately for all considered, we did it when we were so young. We're still here.
READ: Bassett Funding / Throw to break
ANGELA BASSETT: It's wonderful to see the Davises get the recognition for this opera that they so richly deserve. The Met's Live in HD series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met Live in HD Series is supported by Rolex. Today's performance of X will be heard later this season over the Robert K. Johnson Foundation Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network. We'll be back after a break.
READ: Bassett intro to tape
1ANGELA BASSETT: Welcome back. This production of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, marks the Met debut for theater director, Robert O'Hara. He spoke to us recently about the emotional cost of telling Malcolm's story on the opera stage and about that spaceship hovering above.
ROLL-IN D: Ancestors and Afrofuturism: Robert O'Hara's X
ROBERT O’HARA: The opera starts with this meeting about Garvey, and Garvey imagined a Black Star Line ship taking people back to Africa. A big ole ship in the 1920s and the '30s taking someone back to Africa felt science fiction to me, right? And we immediately started to think, well, what if that was a spaceship?
The spaceship crash lands into the Met because I don't think that a stage or even the Met can hold the story of Malcolm X, so you sort of have to break the frame. And descending from that is a replica of the Audubon stage where he was assassinated, where he did a lot of speeches. Not only should a spaceship come, but ancestors and descendants should be from the spaceship, right, and that we should have extraterrestrials, because we rarely see Black people in the future or as futuristic.
The costumes reach back and forward. So I think that Dede Ayite, our costume designer, did an amazing job at imagining for herself what would extraterrestrials of African descent look like. And the actors said, once they got into the full costume, it clicked for them. To imagine yourself in the future, especially in the Black body, is a profound thing that we have had to do to survive. The slaves had to imagine freedom, right? So that to me is what Afrofuturism is. It is imagining yourself, your whole self as a whole person in the future. And so often the future is imagined and you're not there. People like me, it’s like, where did we go, you know? So I think it's an active participation in your own survival.
I felt very strongly that we had to earn the right to tell the story because it's not a fictional character, and so one of the strongest impulses I had is that it would cost us something. It would cost me and I know it would cost the actors and the performers something to present this because they all have an individual relationship to Malcolm X, whenever they learned about Malcolm X or what have you. And so I wanted to make sure that that was earned, but that also it cost the audience something to watch it. And some of that may be comfort, some of it may be unknowing things, some of it may be you'd be challenged by an image or by a memory of the Civil Rights movement. So I wanted to present the images and not just a narrative that you can sit in the dark and be, you know, comfortable, right? It's a struggle to digest everything in this opera, and that's good.
INTERVIEW: Bassett w/ Maestro Kazem Abdullah
ANGELA BASSETT: Hopefully X will be just the beginning of Robert's work as an opera director. I'm joined now by our conductor today, Kazem Abdullah. Hello, Kazem.
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Hello. Nice to be with you.
ANGELA BASSETT: Bravo for the first act.
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Thank you. Thank you.
ANGELA BASSETT: Composer Anthony Davis was here throughout the rehearsal process. What was it like collaborating with him?
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Well, I have to say, when you have a composer in-house that wrote the work, it's like you have the person whose conception and who had the concept to make the opera. So it was invaluable to have his feedback as we were all rehearsing and learning this opera together.
ANGELA BASSETT: One of the striking things about the score is the jazz ensemble embedded in the orchestra.
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Yes.
ANGELA BASSETT: How would you describe that role that jazz plays in this opera?
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Jazz plays a critical role in this opera because as Malcolm goes along his journey in life, jazz and American jazz goes along a journey with him. So we have jazz from the '40s, '50s and '60s, so you have everything from music like Duke Ellington from music to Miles Davis that sounds like these jazz composers.
ANGELA BASSETT: The chorus on stage is so—I mean, it's—they're there so much. It's almost like an oratorio. How would you describe their role in the piece?
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Well, I have to say the chorus was brilliantly prepared by Donald Palumbo, and what's so important about the chorus is that Malcolm was essentially a representation of the community and he was a representation of all Black people in America and throughout the diaspora. So the chorus therefore plays a critical role because you could not have Malcolm without the community behind him.
ANGELA BASSETT: Oh, amen. Now you conduct a wide range of music, from many, many different eras.
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Yes.
ANGELA BASSETT: How do you rate conducting this score to the older classics?
KAZEM ABDULLAH: You know, I have to say it's not too much different. One is always trying to get to the root and the essence of the story that you're trying to tell on stage. So whether it's a modern like Malcolm X or an old opera from Mozart, it's all the same. You just try to commit to the music.
ANGELA BASSETT: Speaking of music, the Met orchestra is so very versatile. But what was the trickiest thing for them in learning this opera?
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Well, I think the trickiest thing for everybody, including myself, is that this music can be very complicated at times, lots of mixed meter, lots of amazing writing. And so one really just has to be very concentrated, and really the whole company has just been terrific.
ANGELA BASSETT: Ah, Kazem, it's been a memorable first act, and we luckily have two more to go. All right. So many, many thanks and I'll hear you out there.
KAZEM ABDULLAH: Thank you.
ANGELA BASSETT: All right.
READ: Throw to Act II
ANGELA BASSETT: Act I ended with Malcolm's angry soliloquy about an unjust white world. When Act II begins, a few years have elapsed and he is still in prison where he is visited by his brother Reginald, who tells him that hope and rebirth beckon in the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam. Here is Act II.
INTERVIEW: Bassett w/ Leah Hawkins
ANGELA BASSETT: Leah, hello.
LEAH HAWKINS: Hello.
ANGELA BASSETT: And brava on your superb dual performance in Act I as Malcom's mother and as his wife in Act II. Now this may be unfair, but which of these two roles is more satisfying to play?
LEAH HAWKINS: Oh, that's hard. It's hard to choose. They both are satisfying for different reasons. I think Louise, dramatically speaking, gives me a mad scene. I get to go a little crazy on stage, and I've never gotten to do that. It does cost me some because I do cry after singing in the scene because she was a real person.
ANGELA BASSETT: Yes.
LEAH HAWKINS: So it's very real to me. And then Betty though, I get to come back and be grounded and be tender and loving and caring, and that's really nice to do. So I can't choose.
ANGELA BASSETT: Don't choose. Don't choose. I won't make. When I played Betty Shabazz on screen—
LEAH HAWKINS: Yeah.
ANGELA BASSETT: —I was struck by her extraordinary resilience. What do you most want to capture as you portray this remarkable woman?
LEAH HAWKINS: Oh, man. I would love to capture her, like I said, her tender, loving energy. She was fiercely protective of her daughters and of Malcolm and of his legacy. So I hope that that comes through. You don’t get to see a lot of her. But I'm hoping that that poise and that power that she had really comes through.
ANGELA BASSETT: I'm sure it does. I know it does. As a rising Black soprano star at the Met, what does it mean to you to play roles like this on this stage?
LEAH HAWKINS: Well, on the one hand, it's a dream come true. In my high school yearbook, I wrote, "See y'all at the Met," so this is something that I've always wanted to do. So it's that dream come true aspect. But also it's I've entered the industry at a really interesting time in that I've gotten to sing three different operas where I'm playing real-life Black women and I'm getting to explore Black womanhood and all the different facets, and that's a really beautiful thing that I'm really grateful for. And it's important. These ladies deserve to be on this big stage.
ANGELA BASSETT: Absolutely. Onward and upward.
LEAH HAWKINS: Absolutely.
ANGELA BASSETT: Before the opening night of X, you met with Malcolm's daughter, Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz. Did meeting her provide any insights into portraying her mother?
LEAH HAWKINS: Oh, yes. She was the one that told me that her mother was so kind, so loving, would say dear heart, like you said in the movie. She would say that to people, my dear heart. So it really changed the way I thought of her because I wasn't sure what I wanted to bring to her just yet. And also she said I looked like her mother, which was really special. She looked at me and grabbed me and said, mommy. She said, no, mommy, daughter, because you're old enough to be my daughter.
ANGELA BASSETT: Leah, it's been an extraordinary pleasure meeting you. Thank you for your incredible talent, you know, that we're witnessing, and thank you for speaking with me.
LEAH HAWKINS: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
ANGELA BASSETT: Absolutely.
READ: Bassett intro Malcolm X history
ANGELA BASSETT: For any artist, it is a gift to portray compelling figures from history like Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. Of course the Malcolm we see on the Met stage today has been reimagined by Anthony Davis and his collaborators. Here's a look at the life and legacy of the realm Malcolm X.
ROLL-IN E: Lee Bynum on Malcolm X's Life and Legacy
LEE BYNUM: Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. This was during a period of intense racial strife across the country. Malcolm's parents were adherents of Marcus Garvey, who believed that if Black people in countries all over the world were to work collectively, it would move the entire group closer to self-determination. And this was a huge, huge influence on Malcolm's political disposition over the course of his life.
As a six-year-old, he lost his father at the hands of white nationalists. His mother eventually suffered a breakdown, and he and his siblings were separated and ended up in foster care. Malcolm, as a teenager around the age of 14, moved in with his sister, Ella, in Boston. The music of Boston, the culture, Black life in Boston was intoxicating for him. And he got involved with the jazz scene, dressing in the zoot suits, and the music was very influential on him.
Anthony Davis’s score uses African American music to mark different points in history. So we hear influences of jazz, bebop and swing to mark where we are in the timeline. And It wasn't just the music and the dance, it was also the fashion, the lexicon, an entire lifestyle. But a lot of it was also, unfortunately, bringing him to a place of juvenile delinquency. He spent a bit of time in petty crime, burglaries, a little bit of larceny, that sort of thing, and it led to his serving time in prison.
While in prison, he was introduced to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, who characterized himself as a prophet of Islam—a very specific version of Islam that was also very centered in the idea that Islam was the true religion of the Black man and that through the principles of Islam, that would lead to self-determination for African Americans.
So, the beginnings of his new identity as Malcolm X certainly started while he was in prison and began to read and learn a lot about Islam. The X, of course, signifies the abandonment of the surname that would have been the name of the family that owned his in the time of slavery.
MALCOM X: It is not their name. It is the slave master’s name. So when we become Muslim, sir, and we turn back toward our own culture, we reject, we cut aside completely those things that stigmatized us in the century.
LEE BYNUM: In 1948 was when he actually converted to Islam. It was a wholesale movement away from the criminality that he had embraced to a very different, more virtuous version of leadership.
Out of prison, he began to do the work of proselytizing to African Americans all over the country, opening new temples for the Nation of Islam, and bringing a lot of African Americans into the organization and I think there was something very powerful in this articulate, charismatic figure who was able to say things in the media that many people thought but did not have the platform, and in some cases, didn't have the confidence to say. Chief among his ideas were economic independence for African Americans. The Black separatist message was very overt.
MALCOM X: As Muslims, we believe that separation is the best way and the only sensible way, not integration.
LEE BYNUM: Malcolm's willingness to respond with an equal amount of force and gusto to many of the harsher sets of treatments of African Americans made him a bit of a hero.
MALCOM X: Anyone who puts his hand on you, do your best to see that he doesn’t put it on anybody else.
LEE BYNUM: College students, teenagers, younger adults were very much inspired by Malcolm's message that nonviolence and a sort of slow, steady crawl towards equality was not the only way to proceed.
MALCOM X: Last year we sat in. What did we get? We crawled in. What did we get? We even marched in, and what did we get? So 1964 threatens to be a very explosive year. A most explosive year.
LEE BYNUM: Additionally, a lot of what Malcolm preached was a type of racial pride that was particularly inspiring to musicians and poets and playwrights who came after him. The Black Arts Movement, which began in the late '60s, the idea that “Black is Beautiful,” the very slogan, came about because of Malcolm X's work directly. Malcolm was active in the Nation of Islam for about 16 years, until 1964, when there was a very, very public break with it.
MALCOM X: There has been a great deal of apprehension at my being out of the Black Muslim movement on the part of the Black Muslims themselves.
LEE BYNUM: It wasn't just a separation from an organization where he was a leader. This was his religion. This was his family. And I think it was a moment of intense reflection for him, right? I think he really started to see the limitations of the Black separatist argument. And at the time of his death, he was also speaking about a different type of openness to collaborating across racial lines to bring about many of these goals.
MALCOM X: And that same process can be used to reeducate the American public and show white people how to love Black people and show Black people how to do something to stand on our own feet and solve our own problems. The Black man doesn’t have to be taught to love the white man; the white man has to be taught to love the Black man.
LEE BYNUM: It's amazing how many of Malcolm's perspectives we have absorbed at this point. Perspectives around Black is Beautiful, the importance of Black art, the continued need for African American self-determination. Many of these ideas haven't gone away. They've just moved more into the mainstream. And I think the relatability, the sort of centering himself in the experience of the Black working man, the traditions of the African American experience that some politicians felt that they needed to retreat from, Malcolm embraced in a way that is sort of central to being a Black political figure in this time.
READ: Bassett Funding / Throw to break
ANGELA BASSETT: That was a revealing look back. The Met's Live in HD Series is made possible thanks to its founding sponsor, the Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Met Live in HD Series is supported by Rolex. We'll be right back after a break.
READ: PSA / Fundraising / Throw to HD Season Preview
ANGELA BASSETT: Welcome back. I've been watching today's performance on a monitor backstage, and as a screen actor, I'm impressed by the incredibly nuanced performances that our singers are delivering today. But as an opera fan, I also know that opera on screen is not the same as opera in the opera house. As remarkable as today's transmission of X is in the cinemas, it simply can't compare to the visceral power of Malcolm's story and Anthony's music experienced here in the auditorium. These voices demand to be heard live. So please, come to the Met or visit your local opera company.
A few weeks ago, Met movie theater audiences experiences Jake Heggie's 21st century masterpiece, Dead Man Walking. Today, we have X, and next month, we'll be presenting the Live in HD premier of Daniel Catán's extraordinary opera, Florencia en el Amazonas. That's three recent operas in rapid succession on this stage and in cinemas, something that has never happened before, but is vital for opera to continue to flourish.
Opera audiences want important stories that they can relate to, and the Met is committed to presenting them. But staging new productions of contemporary work is very expensive. Ticket sales cover only a fraction of the cost. The Met relies on opera lovers like you to help make up the difference.
If you're able to, make a donation. Please visit metopera.org/membership or call us at 1-800-MET-OPERA or you can also text HDLIVE to 44321 to make a contribution. We thank you in advance for your support of the Met. Today's performance of X is just the second of nine cinema transmissions this season. Here's a look at what's coming up.
READ: Bassett intro Florencia clip
ANGELA BASSETT: As we just saw, the Met's next Live in HD presentation will be Florencia en el Amazonas on December 9th. The opera just had its premier two nights ago with soprano Ailyn Pérez in the title role. Here's a look at an excerpt of Ailyn's glorious Act III aria, "Escúchame," or "Hear me."
INTERVIEW: Bassett w/ Ailyn Pérez
ANGELA BASSETT: Ailyn Pérez is with me now. Hello, Ailyn.
AILYN PÉREZ: Hello, Ms. Bassett.
ANGELA BASSETT: That clip was absolutely stunning. Tell me about Daniel Catán's music. What do you love about it?
AILYN PÉREZ: I love that he's given us sonic and spiritual realm of a story about identity, a story about a connection with a realization of oneself in a community as well and a story that brings us back in touch with nature to learn from our ancestors and to reconnect to our roots.
ANGELA BASSETT: Amazing. Catán is the first Mexican composer in Met history, and Florencia is just the third opera to be sung in Spanish here. As a Mexican American artist, what does that mean to you?
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, first of all, I want to thank you for modeling to your culture, to our country and the community worldwide what it means to be an artist who represents more than their own self. That's how I feel in this role. I think Florencia is a part of everyone. It's a part of the stories of children of immigrants. It's a part of the stories of many people who feel lost and disconnected from their roots. It's a reimagined world of offering love as a solution to fear, to a chance at life all over again.
ANGELA BASSETT: That is profound, and it sounds to me like the whole company is just so proud of this Latin American milestone.
AILYN PÉREZ: Thank you.
ANGELA BASSETT: Tell me about this group photo that you recently helped to organize on the Met stage.
AILYN PÉREZ: Well, I'm so thankful. I'm surrounded by brilliant colleagues, and it was my colleague, Gabi Reyes. Gabi had a vision from day one to honor everyone who identifies Spanish-speaking and Latinx here already working at the Met, beyond the curtain, from front of house to artistic and admin and saying—and having a moment onstage with us all and Florencia to say how much we appreciate heir representation and their personal stories as they come to work and how we are so proud of this being a tribute and a promise to many more operas in the future in Spanish.
ANGELA BASSETT: Well, Ailyn, I cannot wait to see Florencia for myself.
AILYN PÉREZ: Muchísimas gracias.
ANGELA BASSETT: Congratulations, and thank you for joining us today.
AILYN PÉREZ: Thank you, Ms. Bassett.
ANGELA BASSETT: See you soon.
AILYN PÉREZ: Thank you.
INTERVIEW: Bassett w/ Victor Ryan Robertson
ANGELA BASSETT: Now I get to speak with the tenor who has dazzling Met audiences with his dual portrayal of Street and Elijah Muhammad, two characters who, at least on the surface, couldn't be more opposite. Victor Ryan Robertson. Hello, Victor.
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: Hello, Angela. How are you?
ANGELA BASSETT: I'm well. Thank you. What do you think of Anthony Davis composed these two roles for one tenor?
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: Well, he wrote it in the '80s for—he wanted to write it so high and so difficult that only a certain singer he had in mind could do it. And since then, he didn't know if anybody could do it. So it fits my voice perfectly. It lies really high up there. They're both crazy difficult, and I just love the challenge of it.
ANGELA BASSETT: Oh, absolutely. What are the similarities and the dissimilarities between these two characters, though?
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: Actually that's a great question. They're both very similar because they're both two major influences on Malcolm X. Both were relative swindlers if you—it depends on how you see it.
Elijah had a third grade education. He assembled hundreds of thousands of members. But he needed Malcolm X to take him over the edge. So I think that was a wonderful way they connected, and unfortunately their demise in the end. But it's a great way that they connected.
ANGELA BASSETT: Unfortunate, yes. How much is your portrayal inspired by the real-life Elijah Muhammad?
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: It was really, really inspired initially by Malcolm X. And once I knew I was doing the role, I looked into his life and we're both from the islands. We both grew up in Georgia. He migrated to Detroit, where he started the temple there. And I just thought this guy was really courageous.
ANGELA BASSETT: Earlier when you were playing Street, we heard you sing in a very different jazz-inflected style.
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: Right.
ANGELA BASSETT: You sounded very authentically 1940s. How'd you do that?
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: I've got to say that was—I attribute that to Branford Marsalis, who helped me, because we're working on a soundtrack together, so.
ANGELA BASSETT: Victor, bravo. Bravo on your virtuoso performance.
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: Bravo to you—brava to you. Thank you so much.
ANGELA BASSETT: Thank you for joining me.
VICTOR RYAN ROBERTSON: Okay.
READ: Throw to Act III
ANGELA BASSETT: In Acts I and II, we saw the extraordinary transformation and rise of Malcolm X. As history knows, he predicted his own early demise. Here is the dramatic conclusion of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.