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Anthony Davis’s 1986 opera is based on the life and death of the charismatic black human rights campaigner Malcolm X. It receives its Met premiere production this season as part of a programming policy to include work outside the traditionally accepted canon, work that speaks to contemporary life. It was an evening, said one critic, with profound impact.

Davis – Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz pianist, composer and educator – focuses on the essential scenes of Malcolm X’s life, from his traumatic childhood to his imprisonment, his conversion to Islam, his activism and, finally, his assassination in 1965.

The vivid orchestral score includes Davis’s Episteme jazz octet (whose directions include "respond to Malcolm", "à la Jimmy Garrison" and "Miles Davis Funk!") and as well as improvisation incorporates swing, pop and contemporary classical styles.

"I imagined," says Davis, "an American opera that drew equally from the African diaspora and the European, where the immediacy of the improvised and subversive spirit of the blues meets the form and structure of a post-tonal language of Berg and Stravinsky."

Recorded in November and presented by Debra Lew Harder with commentator Ira Siff.

Malcolm ….. Will Liverman (baritone)
Louise / Betty ….. Leah Hawkins (soprano)
Ella / Queen Mother ….. Raehann Bryce-Davis (mezzo-soprano)
Elijah / Street ….. Victor Ryan Robertson (tenor)
Reginald ….. Michael Sumuel (bass-baritone)
Social ….. Tracy Cox (soprano)
Policeman 1 / Reporter 1 ….. Gregory Warren (tenor)
Policeman 2 ….. Marco Antonio Jordão (tenor)
Policeman 3 / Reporter 3 ….. Ross Benoliel (bass)
Reporter 2 …. Daniel Clark Smith (tenor)
Reporter 4 ….. Tyler Simpson (tenor)
Garvey Preacher ….. Edwin Jhamaal Davis (bass)
Neighbour ….. Jasmine Muhammad (soprano))
Postman ….. Elliott Paige (tenor)
Friend ….. Adam Richardson (baritone)
Young Malcolm ….. Bryce Christian Thompson (soprano)
Muezzin ….. Tshombe Selby (tenor)
An Ally ….. David Morgans Sanchez (tenor)
Episteme (jazz octet)
Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra
Kazem Abdullah (conductor)