www.margaretgarner.org/index.html

Project Description

Margaret Garner is a new American opera written by Toni Morrison, celebrated novelist and winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature; and Richard Danielpour, Grammy Award-winning composer. The opera tells the true story of a fugitive slave, Margaret Garner, in pre-Civil War America. The goal for the three co-commissioning opera companies in Detroit, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia was to engage more diverse audience members, particularly from their local, prominent African American communities.

In 1856, in the middle of the coldest winter in Ohio Valley’s history, twenty-two-year-old Margaret Garner escaped from a plantation in Richwood, KY to flee north. She traveled with her four children, husband, and his parents; but the family only made it to Ohio before being caught by Margaret’s master, Archibold Gaines, who was also the father of her four children. Feeling that all hope for freedom was lost, Margaret seized a butcher knife and nearly decapitated her two-year-old illegitimate daughter, crying out that she would rather that all of her children and she herself die than return to the bonds of slavery. She was about to kill her other three children and herself when slave catchers subdued her. Garner was tried in court, and her case became the longest fugitive-slave trial in history. Both during and after her trial, abolitionists and slaveholders fought over the meaning of the murder: if she and her children were considered human beings in Ohio, a “free” state, she would have been charged with murder and been executed. However, in Kentucky the murder of her children was only considered “destruction of property,” so she was allowed to live, and was sent back into slavery.

One of the main goals of the Michigan Opera Theatre, as founded and run by David DiChiera, has been to present works relevant to the large ethnic groups that make up the community. In the past, they have met this goal by staging diverse North American premieres like Anoush, which recounts an Armenian story. But in Detroit, 80 percent of the general population is African American, and there hadn’t been an opera (until now) telling one of their stories. When the opportunity to commission Margaret Garner arose, DiChiera met with 40 diverse, prominent members of the community to help him choose an appropriate theme.  DiChiera also felt that it was important not only to tell a story about the African experience, but also to hire African American opera singers. To ensure that this undertaking had some continuity, DiChiera invited two other opera companies to come on board, Cincinnati Opera Theatre and the Opera Company of Philadelphia, both cities with prominent African American communities. For Cincinnati Opera, Margaret Garner is the first new work in their 75-year history to ever be co-commissioned.

Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia all collaborated to bring the world premiere of Margaret Garner to their cities, which will eventually play on each of their stages but began in Detroit in May 2005. The production stars internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and was directed by Kenny Leon, who recently staged the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. In order to make the staging of this production more interesting to younger viewers, Leon hired a choreographer, which is generally unheard of in opera.

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities

Before the show began its three-state tour, the three co-commissioning opera companies created an official Margaret Garner website. Michigan Opera Theatre linked their company’s website to the Margaret Garner website, in order to help future audience members prepare for the show. This website was created in collaboration with the state public school social studies curriculums, and includes an index of learning resources for teachers and students about slavery, as well as a database containing extensive lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school students. There are also links to other recommended educational websites on slavery, such as an interactive storybook about why slavery came to America; an explanation of the Underground Railroad in Detroit by Dr. Norman McRae; historical information about Margaret Garner; and sites displaying the text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Underground Railroad in Michigan, and a timeline of abolition. Michigan Opera Theatre’s Department of Community Programs created one-act shows to tour local schools: No Doubt, a musical revue for all ages, uses universal themes of faith, hope and family to teach about the African American experience; The Araboolies of Liberty Street, based on children’s author Sam Swope’s award-winning book of the same name, tells a humorous and endearing story of diversity and tolerance through opera, for grades one through five.

The Michigan Opera Theatre also invited Opera America—a service organization dedicated to supporting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera—to collaborate with them. They offered to host Opera America’s 2005 conference in Detroit, contingent upon the conference addressing the theme of diversity in opera, and Opera America agreed. The conference, called Diverse Voices, featured sessions that addressed the breadth and depth of diversity—covering race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Workshops examined how to build diversity not just in the audience, but on and off stage, as well as among board and staff. Participants ventured into the Detroit community to provide a context for discussions about the increasingly diverse society, visiting the Museum of African American History and Sainte Anne’s de Detroit, in the heart of the city’s Hispanic neighborhood. Opera America introduced a new event for the 2005 conference, “Diversity in Performance,” which will continue to be a yearly showcase for traditional and contemporary singing and theatre traditions from American Indian, African-American, and Arab American communities. This performance was also presented in sign language, to demonstrate one way in which opera can reach the disabled. All conference participants attended Margaret Garner at Michigan Opera Theatre.

Some of the events hosted by the Cincinnati Opera in Ohio included a two-week festival called “Oh Freedom,” a book club, and a visual art exhibition. “Oh Freedom” used spoken stories and songs to teach the history of African-American struggles for freedom from enslavement. The festival incorporated a wide range of musical expressions: from spirituals and secret songs of the Underground Railroad to the artistic explosion of the Harlem Renaissance and anthems of the civil rights movement. The opera’s creative team invited future audience members to join them in reading Toni Morrison’s book Beloved, and then participate in subsequent book club meetings. One meeting screened the film adaptation of the book, which starred Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover; while other meetings asked participants to compare and contrast the leading character in Beloved to Margaret Garner, or to compare and contrast the historical events documented in Beloved to the ones portrayed in the opera. The visual art exhibition featured original artwork inspired by Margaret Garner’s story.

The Cincinnati Opera invited the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center into collaboration to host more educational events. “Introducing Margaret Garner” was comprised of seven free concerts featuring scenes from the opera and presented at the Freedom Center, the Mercantile Library, and four other community congregations. These performances featured a cast of five young singers from the show: mezzo-soprano Tracie Luck, baritone John Fulton, baritone Michael Mayes, soprano Adrienne Danrich, and tenor Mark T. Panuccio. The event was narrated by local award-winning actress Burgess Byrd. After each performance, representatives from the Freedom Center facilitated dialogue sessions intended to explore the significance and meaning of Margaret Garner's story. Another event, “Opera Rap,” was a special touring version of the opera which only included the dialogue in the libretto telling Garner’s story. The tour performed at schools, community centers, public performances, and congregations, introducing Garner’s story to future audience members. The Freedom Center also created two events, a mock trial and a teacher institute. The mock trial of the Garner murder case was led by members of the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Trial Lawyers and included witness testimonies and a re-creation of the hearing that went before a Federal Commissioner to decide whether Margaret Garner should be returned to her owner. The program was followed by a panel discussion of historians and attorneys, led by the Honorable James L. Graham. The workshop ,taught by Freedom Center staff, was intended to improve teaching about the American slavery experience among educators teaching grades 7–12. Dr. Delores Walters of the Freedom Center talked about the Margaret Garner Story, and Carl Westmoreland talked about the International Slave Trade. In preparation, participants were asked to read Modern Medea in preparation for the keynote address given by author Steven Weisenberger.

The Toni Morrison Society, in collaboration with the Cincinnati Opera, will host their bicentennial conference, Toni Morrison & Sites of Memory, in Ohio. Participants will attend a tour of her home and of sites on the Underground Railroad, as well as participating in teacher workshops and breakout sessions on topics, to be decided. One session will be devoted entirely to the usefulness of sites of memory in teaching Toni Morrison’s novels, and in preparation, authors are asked to send in papers that describe and interpret those sites as cultural locations. At the Editors and Authors luncheon, authors have the opportunity to receive feedback on their writing. The conference registration fee includes one ticket to see Margaret Garner at the Cincinnati Opera.

The Opera Company of Philadelphia will launch their community-wide program outreach surrounding the East Coast Premiere of Margaret Garner in February 2006. In the fall, noted storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston will perform her adaptation of the opera's story, accompanied by musical excerpts sung by Tracie Luck and James J. Kee, who created the opera's leading roles in early workshop performances. This presentation will be performed five times throughout the Philadelphia community at no charge, with one performance exclusively for students, and will also include a discussion session after each presentation. Other planned collaborations include multiple events co-presented with the Johnson House, one of Philadelphia's most notable landmarks and an actual stop on the Underground Railroad; a song-based exploration of the secret language within spirituals given at the African American Museum; and presentations by scholars and authors on the subject of enslavement at historic sites around the city including the Civil War Museum and the Constitution Center.