South Shore Opera Company of Chicago

Under the musical direction of Leslie B. Dunner, the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago will premiere the fully orchestrated version of The Poet this fall. The opera, in one act, is derived of vignettes from the larger work, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows: An Opera based on the Lives and Love of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore.

Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows is named after a volume of Dunbar’s poetry published in 1901. The original libretto was inspired from over three hundred letters Paul and Alice wrote to each other. They are compiled in the dissertation “The Letters of Paul and Alice Dunbar: A Private History,” by Eugene Wesley Metcalf, Jr. (University of California, Irvine, 1973). Additionally, the book Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Tragic Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore by Dr. Eleanor Alexander (New York University Press, New York, 2001) was a valuable resource in this development.

Excerpts from the letters, poetry, and short stories written between the two are intricately placed within a tapestry of genres and echoes of Post-Reconstruction.

The Poet was first premiered to commemorate the opening of the newly reconstructed Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2014. The school was the first to be named after the great American poet in 1914.

Original Cast

Paul Laurence Dunbar.......Gregory J. Watkins

Matilda Dunbar.........................Denyce Graves

Alice Ruth Moore.............Lisa Edwards-Burrs

Major James Pond.......................Daniel Noone