Charles M. Blow’s memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones is brave in its honesty.
The opera based on his book begins with Charles holding a gun with which to murder the man who molested him as a child. It then follows the moments of Charle’s life that lead him to this critical moment of choice.
Charles Blow said about his very personal narrative that he was “very worried that this place that [he] was writing about is so small and so insignificant in the grand scheme of things that no one would actually care about it. And so to have the Met say this story is grand enough to grace their stage, it’s just an awesome thing that signifies in a lot of ways that there are no small, insignificant stories in life. Life itself is not small and insignificant, and every life has a story in it.”
The libretto by Kasi Lemmons tells the story with succinct and repetitious gravity. There were moments I fought back tears watching this opera, and then with the mother’s final gesture and word in the final act came, I couldn’t hold them any longer.
The opera is unique in that Blanchard mediates between two genres, classical and jazz. He uses both with great effect to give the libretto the most impact, the composition born to support and compliment the story. He integrates them beautifully bridging them for the audience so the changes between the two flow…
The themes of the opera can be uncomfortable and Blanchard’s shines a big spotlight them:
This production has been sold out and I was fortunate enough to grab a standing seat for the sixth performance (Chaltin is quick to point out that her historical playbill reads, ‘premiere’ and mine doesn’t).
Me and the audience many times were stilled and speechless. And this was an audience capable of some noise with an outrageous applause when Yannick took the stage and howls and stomping after the fraternity dance sequence, but other than that the gravity of the main character’s story commanded so much respect. You could hear a pin drop.
A funny side story happened at the begging of the opera. I had made a delicious baguette of mozzarella, heirloom tomato, and basil. I took it out of a sandwich bag and ate half before the opera began while admiring the Henri Moore sculpture in front of Juliard. I put the other half in my pocket dreaming about how awesome it was going to be to eat the other half during intermission.
I could only get standing tickets but as the curtain dropped I saw some open seats all the way at the bottom of family circle and I went for them. I was getting pretty comfortable and typically they don’t let people in late, but about a half hour in they let late comers in and of course the group who came in stood right where I was sitting.
The slow walk of shame back up to family circle standing about 30 rows up was embarrassing, but worse I realized I lost my sandwich. I was determined to still find it and eat it but it was gone forever.
So what is Fire Up in My Bones all about? It tells the story of a man coming to terms with the trauma of molestation and discovering who he as an individual is so much more than that trauma.
Notes on the production:
Conductor ……………………………. Yannick Nezet-Seguin
Charles ……………………………………………………………………… Will Liverman
Destiny, Loneliness, Greta ………………………………….. Angel Blue
Billie …………………………………………………………………………… Latonia Moore
Char’es-baby …………………………………………………… Walter Russell III
Met Opera 10/17/21