The Salmon Arm Jazz Club is pleased to join with the Salmar Society in promoting the upcoming HDLive stream of internationally acclaimed jazz trumpeter and composer, Terence Blanchard's Metropolitan Opera debut of "Champion".

This event will take place at the Salmar Classic, Saturday morning, April 29th at 9:55 AM. The performance will be streamed live from New York and includes incredible behind the scenes live interviews with the performers and directors during the set changes and intermissions. And Terence Blanchard secures his place in history as one of the best genre-bending musical geniuses with his ability to fuse deep knowledge of the jazz canon into the operatic art form.

Last season, the six-time Grammy Award-winner Blanchard made history when his “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” became the first opera by a Black composer to be presented on the Met stage. “Champion” predates “Fire” by six years and follows real-life boxer Emile Griffith through the ups and downs of his life in the ring.

Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion. 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 Neězet-Seěguin conducts.

“Champion” is told largely through flashbacks, as the former welterweight world champion struggles with trauma-related mental illness and reflects on his fateful fight with Benny “Kid” Paret that took his opponent’s life. The opera also touches on issues of identity as Griffith wrestles with his own complicated relationship to his sexuality.

Blanchard (b 1962) rose to prominence as a jazz trumpeter and has received Academy Award nominations for his scores for Spike Lee’s “Black Klansman” and “Da 5 Bloods”. He weaves together both contemporary and classical musical idioms to create a wholly new sound world, one which led him to subtitle “Champion” as an “opera in jazz.”

“Champion” premiered at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2013--before going on to appear on the stages of a number of the nation’s most prestigious opera companies and now on HD Live from the Met.

Estimated Run Time: 3 hrs

Act I - 70 mins; Intermission - 30 mins; Act II - 80 mins

NOTE: This event will be screened at the Salmar Classic Theatre. The Salmar Community Association is a Jazz Club sponsor, having provided us with much needed financial assistance during the development of our organization.

ADMISSION:
Adults – $24
Students & Children – $18