6 UK Opera Alumni Lend Their Voices to Metropolitan Opera's 'Fire Shut Up in My Bones'

By Whitney Hale, for UKNow, Oct. 13, 2021

“Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard’s adaptation of Charles M. Blow’s moving memoir, features the vocal talents of six Wildcats and runs through Oct. 23.

Featuring filmmaker Kasi Lemmons’ libretto, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” tells a poignant and profound story about a young man’s journey to overcome a life of trauma and hardship. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts and James Robinson and Camille A. Brown — two creators of the Met’s most recent production of “Porgy and Bess” — co-direct this new staging; Brown, who is also the production’s choreographer, becomes the first Black director to create a mainstage Met production. Baritone Will Liverman stars as Charles alongside soprano Angel Blue as Destiny/Loneliness/Greta, soprano Latonia Moore as Billie, and Walter Russell III as Char’es-Baby.

The six Wildcats lending their voices as part of the cast and chorus of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” include soprano Denisha Ballew, baritone Christopher Kenney, soprano Christine Jobson, soprano Andrea Jones-Sojola, dramatic mezzo-soprano Karmesha Peake and baritone Markel Reed. In addition to lending her voice to the chorus, Ballew also portrays the character of Verna. And Kenney is making his Met debut in the role of Chester.