“We bend, we don't break. We sway!” the performers sing in the second act of Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones. That message of survival in dark times was well-received by the thousands watching the Metropolitan Opera in New York City this week. Its theater went dark in March 2020 in reaction to the COVID-19 crisis. It reopened Monday night at its Lincoln Center home. The suspension had lasted 566 days. COVID may have bent The Met, but the Met did not break. The showing made Met Opera history: Blanchard became the first Black composer to have his work performed by the Met. About 4,000 people attended the event, and many in the crowd wore costly clothes and shiny jewels. The fans met with each other warmly, seeming to share in the joy they felt to be back at Lincoln Center. At the end of the opera, the crowd went wild --- applauding for more than eight minutes. Kasi Lemmons wrote the words to Fire Shut Up in My Bones based on a story by Charles M. Blow, a New York Times opinion writer. Blow and Lemmons both received loud cheers when they appeared on stage with Blanchard. The night was a great victory for the 59-year-old composer and trumpet player. Like Blow, Blanchard is from Louisiana. That southern state is where the story takes place. It explores child sex abuse in segregated northern Louisiana during the 1970s. This was Blanchard’s second opera after 2013s Champion, based on the life of professional fighter Emile Griffith.
