The Metropolitan Opera: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (2023)

Plot Summary

Anthony Davis’s groundbreaking and influential opera, which premiered in 1986, arrives at the Met at long last. Theater luminary and Tony-nominated director of Slave Play Robert O’Hara oversees a potent new staging that imagines Malcolm as an everyman whose story transcends time and space. An exceptional cast of breakout artists and young Met stars enliven the operatic retelling of the civil rights leader’s life. Baritone Will Liverman, who triumphed in the Met premiere of Fire Shut Up in My Bones, is Malcolm, alongside soprano Leah Hawkins as his mother, Louise; mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as his sister Ella; bass-baritone Michael Sumuel as his brother Reginald; and tenor Victor Ryan Robertson as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. Kazem Abdullah conducts the newly revised score, which provides a layered, jazz-inflected setting for the esteemed writer Thulani Davis’s libretto.

Full Cast & Characters

Leah Hawkins

Louise/Betty

Raehann Bryce-Davis

Ella / Queen Mother

Victor Ryan Robertson

Elijah/Street

Will Liverman

Malcolm

Michael Sumuel

Reginald

Angela Bassett

Host

Bryce Christian Thompson

Young Malcolm

Director & Crew

Official Trailer

Where to Watch The Metropolitan Opera: The Life and Times of Malcolm X Online

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