![]() Thompson and librettist Andrea Davis Pinkney worked on building the score and story from what is, admittedly, a pretty short book about a young boy's experiences with snow. ![]() It was the first picture book with an African American main character to win a major children's award. Taken from the Caldecott award-winning book of the same title by Ezra Jack Keats, the opera version of The Snowy Day will premiere at HGO on December 9. What made the book groundbreaking when it was published in 1962 was that the main character Peter was a young Black boy. The proposal from HGO represented a chance to do something different. His compositions such as "The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed" often deal with heavier themes. "All of a sudden, opera made sense as a possible genre for me," says Thompson who up till now has been best known for his orchestral and choral work. ![]() ![]() Emmy award-winning composer Joel Thompson had never done an opera before but when Houston Grand Opera's Patrick Summers approached him with the seed of an idea to build on the classic children's book The Snowy Day, he was both "humbled" and ready to go. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |