Part of the Metropolitan Opera Live Series: Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES triumphantly premiered with the company to universal acclaim in 2021. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium for Blanchard’s second Met premiere, also reuniting the director-and-choreographer team of James Robinson and Camille A. Brown. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to movie theaters across the globe.

3h 20m.

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Emelda Griffith: Latonia Moore
Kathy Hagan: Stephanie Blythe
Young Emile Griffith: Ryan Speedo Green
Emile Griffith: Eric Owens

"The thrill and agony of victory." – New York Times

"CHAMPION kicks up plenty of glory​​​​​​." – New York Magazine

"Blanchard is a master at matching color and pace, finding the perfect shade of indigo for a blue mood or the right brass blat to punctuate an ironic line. One of the most effective moments comes when he hushes the hundreds of players and voices at his disposal and accompanies Latonia Moore's thrilling flame thrower of a voice with nothing but a plucked bass. She sings the role of Emile's mother, who abandoned him and her other children. In her volatile mixture of quiet and heat, you can hear pride, self-loathing, desire, and the will to survive." – Vulture

"Blanchard's soul-stirring score captures both the excitement of live sports and Emile's looming dread. Under the direction of James Robinson, the cast beautifully inhabits this macho, crude, mid-20^th-century world, complete with athletic, sexy choreography by Camille A. Brown and outrageous costumes by Montana Levi Blanco, who expertly navigates the borderland between butch and femme." – TheaterMania