X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an Everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, sings Malcolm X, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.

Please note that video cameras will be in operation during the November 14 and November 18 performances as part of the Met’s Live in HD series of cinema transmissions.

Music by Anthony Davis, libretto by Thulani Davis, story by Christopher Davis

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, Detroit Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Omaha, and Seattle Opera

Production a gift of The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. and The Ford Foundation

Additional support from the Francis Goelet Endowment Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts

X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X is part of the Neubauer Family Foundation New Works Initiative