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Friends Of WVPB Host 'Fire Shut Up In My Bones' Opera In W.Va.

A photo of Will Liverman portraying Charles in Terence Blanchard’s "Fire Shut Up in My Bones."

Fire Shut Up In My Bones, the first performance of an opera by a Black composer on The Met’s stage, is being presented at movie theaters in West Virginia as part of The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Series this Saturday, Oct. 23, at 12:55 p.m. at Regal Nitro, Regal Morgantown, and Cinemark Huntington Mall in Barboursville.

Encore performances are available Wednesday, Oct. 27, in Nitro and Morgantown at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., as well as in Barboursville at 6:30 p.m.

The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series is presented in West Virginia with generous support from The Betty J. Herscher Fund for Cultural Programming and the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

In the opera, Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir. The first opera by a Black composer presented on The Met stage and featuring a libretto by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons, the opera tells a poignant and profound story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. James Robinson and Camille A. Brown, two of the creators of the recent production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, co-direct this new staging. Will Liverman portrays Charles; Angel Blue portrays Destiny/Loneliness/Greta; and Latonia Moore portrays Billie.

Advisory: This opera addresses adult themes and contains adult language.

The series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Digital support is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Met Live in HD is supported by Rolex and by Toll Brothers, America’s Luxury home builder.

The complete 2021-2022 Season:

10/9/21 Boris Godunov 12:55 p.m.
10/23/21 Fire Shut Up in My Bones 12:55 p.m.
12/4/21 Eurydice 12:55 p.m.
1/1/21 Cinderella 12:55 p.m. Holiday presentation
1/29/22 Rigoletto 12:55 p.m.
3/12/22 Ariadne auf Naxos 12:55 p.m.
3/26/22 Don Carlos Noon
5/7/22 Turandot 12:55 p.m.
5/21/22 Lucia di Lammermoor 12:55 p.m.
6/4/22 Hamlet 12:55 p.m.