Anthony Davis: X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X
BMOP/sound

When Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2021-22 season on September 27, 2021, the moment was justly celebrated for being the first opera by an African American composer to have been presented by the company since its 1883 founding. Yet paving the way for Blanchard was Anthony Davis, whose own groundbreaking opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, premiered almost thirty-five years to the day earlier, on September 28, 1986, at the New York State Theater. Yet while the opera and the 1992 Grammy-nominated Gramavision recording of the work were met with acclaim, the creation by Davis (b.1951) and librettist Thulani Davis (b.1949) largely lay dormant until conductor Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) resurrected it in a revised version at Boston's Strand Theatre in June 2022 (although, for the record, Detroit Opera's production preceded the BMOP's by a month). The second time's the charm, apparently: in addition to planned stagings by Opera Omaha, Seattle Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Met intends to present the work as part of its 2023-24 season. Much as the Gramavision recording complemented the earlier staging, BMOP/sound now follows the BMOP's live presentation with a physical document, the world premiere recording of the opera in its revised form.

In light of recent years' events, the re-emergence of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X couldn't be timelier. Born in 1925, the crusader for social justice is today an inspiration for Black Lives Matter, and the incidents of racial violence from his own time remain sadly with us, as evidenced by the deaths of George Floyd and others. Biographical in its unfolding, the opera recounts the life of Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little and later El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) from his days as the young son of a reverend in Lansing, Michigan until his 1965 shooting in New York City. While the story (credited to the composer's brother, Christopher Davis) is historically grounded, it plays like a news item torn from yesterday's headlines when the events possess such contemporary resonance. As the composer himself states, the opera premiered “to a world that is very different from today, yet shockingly the same. Technology has changed how we present and create opera, yet the racial tensions and inequities still haunt us.”

Enhancing the release are commentaries by the composer and librettist that cast an illuminating light on the work and its history. In her notes, Thulani characterizes the revised version as “tighter” and identifies the tweaks that were made. However, those with a soft spot for the Gramavision version will be relieved to learn that the essence of the original recording is intact in the new one; while it is a revised treatment, the length of both is appreciably the same (approximately 150 minutes), Davis's richly polyphonic music is unchanged, and the highlights in the first opera treatment remain in the second. The personnel is different, obviously, but the orchestra musicians, the nine improviser ensemble players, Odyssey Opera chorus, and vocal soloists acquit themselves splendidly on the BMOP/sound release. In the pivotal title role, bass-baritone Davóne Tines delivers a stellar and charismatic performance, but so too do soprano Whitney Morrison as Louise Little and Betty Shabazz and tenor Victor Robertson as Street and Elijah Muhammad.

Highlights? Many, but a representative sampling will suffice: mezzo-soprano Ronnita Miller as Ella in the “Come with me, child” scene and its recounting of the period when the teenage Malcolm went to live with his sister in the Roxbury section of Boston; the contrast between Street's “Shoot your shot” and Ella's “Some men are strivers” verses at the pool hall as each tries to exert influence on the boy; Malcolm's adopting of “X” in the second act's “You are not empty” scene; the haunting “We are a nation” episode; Betty's stirring aria “When a man is lost”; and, naturally, the Audubon Ballroom shooting by three assassins that brings Malcolm's life to a momentous end.

The incorporation of improvisers was a daring move when the opera premiered, and it's still something rarely done in an opera context. Regardless, the calibre of the musicians on the earlier and new releases is exceptional. While first-call players such as Marty Ehrlich, John Purcell, Abdul Wadud, Pheeroan akLaff, and Marilyn Crispell elevate the 1992 release, the new one's distinguished by Peter Hess, Daniel Smith, Kenji Kikuchi, Richard Kelley, David Harris, Mark Helias, Michael Karloff, Maria Finkelmeier, and Robert Schulz.

It would be wrong to label X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X a ‘jazz opera,' yet there's no denying jazz and blues are integral to the score. Davis acknowledges as much in noting that in creating the opera's earlier musical world, he drew on what Malcolm would have been hearing in the ‘40s—the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, et al.—and then later, after joining the Nation of Islam, artists such as John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Even so, the opera inhabits a musical space that largely transcends genre, with the composer fashioning his music in accordance with the libretto and the events as they unfold. Motifs and melodies are abundant and memorable, making for a score that sticks long after the recording's done.

December 2022