The Dunbar Operas: Celebrating 10 Years

Larry Thomas as Major Pond and Sylvia Twine as Matilda Dunbar

Brandie Sutton as Mary L. Wright

Charmaine McGilvey as Victoria Matthews

In this, our monumental year, we are profoundly grateful to The Coalition of African Americans in the Performing Arts in conjunction with The Prince Georges’ Arts and Humanities Council for awarding The Dunbar Operas $20,000 in CAAPA’s Opera Composer’s Showcase last fall. The award is deemed toward the completion of the work, and a fully-staged production in 2020.

As we begin our fund-raising initiatives, we invite you to become a benefactor to this cause by making a tax-deductible contribution to The Dunbar Operas Fund, Inc. Your support is crucial to the production of this opera.

Please subscribe and/or like us on Facebook for more information, a timeline of past performances, unseen footage and a peek into Act II.

Today, June 27, 2019 marks the 10th year anniversary of the premiere of Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows: An Opera based on the Lives and Love of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore.

 As a text setting assignment, I chose a poem from  Dunbar’s volume, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow, published in 1901. Exploring a bevy of his works peaked an interest into the life of the Poet. Upon research with the aid of Maurice Saylor, former Head Music Librarian at Catholic University, and perhaps the only other person who knows the work as well as I, the journey began!

14. Till the Wind gets Right - Gregory J. Watkins as Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Gregory J. Watkins as Paul Laurence Dunbar

Lisa Edwards-Burrs as Alice Ruth Moore

Jessi Baden-Campbell as Patricia Moore

David Haynes, Geremy Faulkner and Malachi White as the Boys