Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents Champion—an opera by Terence Blanchard, with a libretto by Michael Cristofer—featuring performances by members of the cast and a moderated discussion about the work’s forthcoming company premiere at the Metropolitan Opera. Tickets available now at worksandprocess.org.

Champion

An Opera by Terence Blanchard

Libretto by Michael Cristofer

Monday, March 20, 7:30PM

Tickets $35–$45, Choose What You Pay

Experience highlights from six-time Grammy-winning composer Terence Blanchard’s haunting “opera in jazz.” Following their triumphant 2021 collaboration on Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, director James Robinson, and choreographer Camille A. Brown reunite with Blanchard to explore the life of boxer Emile Griffith. Blanchard’s first opera, Champion tells the story of Griffith’s rise from obscurity to world champion, his struggle with his sexuality, and how a knockout of a homophobic rival in the early 1960s led to tragedy. Met General Manager Peter Gelb moderates a discussion with the creative team, and members of the cast perform selections from the opera.

WORKS & PROCESS AT THE GUGGENHEIM

1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128

ABOUT WORKS & PROCESS

An independent process-focused non-profit performing arts organization, Works & Process champions creative process from studio to stage and illuminates the artistic process of creators from the world’s largest organizations and simultaneously champions artists representing historically underrecognized performing arts cultures by providing rare longitudinal and fully funded creative residency, commissioning, and presenting support.

Works & Process provides audiences with unprecedented access to creative process with programs that blend artist discussions and performance highlights, with the goal of fostering greater understanding and appreciation and broadening representation.

This season, Works & Process celebrates New York artists, street and social dance, and—after four decades at the Guggenheim—expands beyond the museum to also present at Lincoln Center and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, with the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Our ongoing LaunchPAD “Process as Destination” residency program knits together a constellation of 12 residency centers across New York State to support creative process.

“But praise and gratitude also must go to Works & Process and Jacob’s Pillow. These organizations have not only been providing lifelines to artists during the pandemic, they have also been directing attention and resources to dance communities often neglected by the institutions of concert dance.”

—The New York Times

“An exceptional opportunity to understand something of the creative process” —The New York Times