February 10, 2021
In
How ‘Moonlight’ and Solange inspired an opera film centering Black artists
“That interpretation of Price’s and Hughes’ work is part of “Breathing Free,” a 45-minute visual album by Heartbeat Opera that showcases Black performers, composers and writers, weaving music from Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Negro spirituals, and works from Price, Harry T. Burleigh and Anthony Davis. Another the nine “Breathing Free” videos, “Lovely Dark and Lonely One,” the 1935 work composed by Burleigh and written by Hughes, shows tenor Curtis Bannister’s moment of quiet revelation in his bathroom mirror, a scene juxtaposed with dancing in front of Lake Michigan at sunrise.”