The Metropolitan Opera: Champion

The Metropolitan Opera: Champion (2023)

Music

Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for Blanchard’s second Met premiere, also reuniting the director-and-choreographer team of James Robinson and Camille A. Brown.

Directors: James Robinson, Gary Halvorson.
Writer: Michael Cristofer

Casts

	Eric Owens as Emile Griffith
	Latonia Moore as Emelda Griffith
	Eric Greene as Benny "Kid" Paret / Benny Paret, jr.
	Paul Groves as Howie Albert
	Lee Wilkof as Ring Announcer
	Stephanie Blythe as Kathy Hagen
	Edward Nelson as Man in Bar
	Krysty Swann as Cousin Blanche
	Ethan Joseph as Little Emile
	Helena Brown as Lucia Paret
	Tshombe Selby as Mano Alfano
	Brittany Renee as Sadie Donastorg Griffith

Crew