Blue (full orchestral version)

Tazewell Thompson

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Harlem, New York City

In Harlem, a couple celebrates the birth of their firstborn — a boy, Black and beautiful. As the mother worries for their son’s future in today’s America, the father wrestles with his role as a police officer, a “Black man in blue.” When the unimaginable happens and the son is killed by a white officer, they must face every family’s worst fear.

The New York Times
“Drawing on her deep experience in musical theater, her keen ear for elements of contemporary classical music and her abundant imagination, Ms. Tesori has written a strong yet subtle score that avoids the obvious and exudes a personal voice. Mr. Thompson, who also directed the production, has written one of the most elegant librettos I’ve heard in a long time.”

OperaWire
“Most impressive is how the music brings Tazewell’s astonishing libretto to life in a seamless collaboration.”

“The music is majestic and sweeping, yet intimate and personal.”

BBC Music Magazine
“Tazewell Thompson’s libretto is eviscerating in its fury and grief, and the agonising conflicts experienced by people torn apart by racist violence. Yet it’s equally, painfully full of tenderness, love and humour. The contrasts are beautifully matched in Jeanine Tesori’s score, which moves from lush warmth to splintered dissonance in a heartbeat, straddling art and vernacular styles with subtlety and verve.”

Chicago Sun-Times
“Composer Jeanine Tesori, who has written four operas and an assortment of musicals, clearly knows how to write for the voice, providing striking arias and wonderful duets and quartets, with exquisite, multilayered harmonies.”

The Guardian
“Powerful”

“Tesori’s score … has a directness of expression that proves persuasive.”