Fri 1/29 @ 7PM
Sun 1/31 @ 2PM
Fri 2/5 @ 7PM
Sat 2/6 @ 7PM
Sun 2/7 @ 2PM
That period between Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and the onset of Black History Month — February — is the ideal time to reflect on some of our contry’s most fraught yet triumphant history. That’s what the opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom by 1992 Oberlin graduate Nkeiru Okoye does.
Cleveland Opera Theater’s New Opera Initiative and Oberlin Opera Theater have joined to produce this work, which tells in music the story of former slave Tubman and her role in the Underground Railroad, helping to bring other slaves to freedom. It incorporates gospel, spirituals, ragtime and minstrel music to evoke the feeling of the period in which it’s set.
The opera premiered in New York City in February 2014; this is its Midwest premiere. The cast and orchestra include area musicians as well as Oberlin students.
Performances take place at Christ Temple Apostolic Church in Oberlin on Fri 1/29 @ 7pm; at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Oberlin Sun 1/31 @ 2pm; at St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Cleveland on Fri 2/5 @ 7pm; at Oberlin’s Finney Chapel Sat 2/6 @ 7pm; and at First Baptist Church in Cleveland on Sun 2/7 @ 2pm.
Admission to all performances is free, and no ticket is required.
oberlin.edu/oberlin-opera-theater/
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074
Cleveland, OH 44118