Original image by There Stands the Glass.
If you were among the approximately 300 people at Muriel Kauffman Theatre on Sunday, October 12, you may have wondered why only one person was seated in the first four rows of the opera hall. As the weirdo in question, I too was puzzled by my isolation.
I purchased a $33.50 ticket- the least expensive pricing tier- for a seat in the front row for the Harriman-Jewell Series presentation billed as Terence Blanchard’s “operatic concert production of 'Fire Shut Up in My Bones'.” Why no one else opted to do the same thing is beyond me.
I would have been completely enthralled even if I hadn’t made eye contact with Blanchard, soprano Adrienne Danrich, baritone Justin Austin, guitarist Charles Altura and drummer Oscar Seaton. They simply didn’t have anyone else to look at!
Keyboardist Julian Pollack, bassist Dale Black, and the members of Turtle Island String Quartet were out of my sightline. Video production with live footage overlaid on images allowed everyone to see what was happening and to gain additional insights into Blanchard’s artistic vision.
The first thirty minutes were dedicated to burly material from Blanchard’s 2005 album Flow. The next hour featured a staging of selections from Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” A concert with elite plugged-in jazz and groundbreaking opera? I’m all about it, even with 300 sets of eyes boring into the back of my head.