Blue at The Kennedy Center

Blue

The Kennedy Center
2700 F Street, NW Washington

Proof that opera can be powerfully contemporary, Blue dives head first into the Black Lives Matter movement with the tragic story of a black police officer whose son is killed by a fellow officer. The Tony-winning composer of Fun Home teamed with the acclaimed director of Porgy and Bess to write the gut-punch of a score.

Thru - Mar 25, 2023

Show Type: Opera

Box Office: 202-467-4600

www.kennedy-center.org

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Blue Reviews

Average Rating based on 4 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...Blue, the opera by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Tazewell Thompson (libretto), is thrilling and gloriously impassioned: a volatile yet buoyant work that pushes against the idea that there should be no place for global-majority (non-"white") folks to exist in their nobility and universal humanity, in either the private imagination or public forums of the nation and the world. Blue defies the idea that there should be no space for global-majority (non-"white") folks to have control of the telling their own stories."

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- Gregory Ford

Washington Informer - Highly Recommended

"...Composed by Jeanine Tesori, with the libretto and lyrics by Tazewell Thompson, "Blue" is a beautiful yet heartbreaking story unfolding in a production presented by the Washington National Opera (WNO). With the father a police officer, and the mother a business owner, the production is in English with projected English titles."

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- Brenda C. Siler

MD Theatre Guide - Recommended

"...An opera in two acts, "Blue" was written by Tony Award-winning composer, Jeanine Tesori with libretto by Tazewell Thompson. It premiered in 2019 at the Glimmerglass Festival and was awarded "Best New Opera of 2020" by the Music Critics Association of North America. A musical and dramatic triumph, "Blue" is certainly destined to take its place as a significant contribution to American opera as well as the fight for racial justice."

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- Jeannette Mulherin

BroadwayWorld - Somewhat Recommended

"...Thompson's treatment of the plot of Blue resembles Greek tragedy, which is its strength. No guns go off in Blue, and no one dies onstage. Letting the violence happen offstage thickens its power. But the libretto exposes its own weaknesses by only listing elements of black life (collard greens, black-eyed peas, hoodies, tattoos, slave names, Bible texts) without bringing that life to full experience. Because black lives matter, listing their components only minimizes them."

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- Mary Lincer

Blue at The Kennedy Center

Blue

Blue Reviews

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

Washington Informer - Highly Recommended

MD Theatre Guide - Recommended

BroadwayWorld - Somewhat Recommended

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