“Les Paul: Thru the Lens” explores the life of pioneering musician and innovator Les Paul. Through a series of 24 photographs, visitors will see a chronicle of Paul’s life, career, and achievements: his early performances as Red Hot Red, his marriage to and work with Mary Ford, his explorations in the recording studio and with the electric guitar, and of course his long and influential performing career.
Six-time Grammy Award–winning composer Terence Blanchard brings his first opera to the Met after his Fire Shut Up in My Bones made history in the 2021–22 season. Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green is the young boxer Emile Griffith, who rises from obscurity to become a world champion, and bass-baritone Eric Owens portrays Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother, and mezzo- soprano Stephanie Blythe is the bar owner Kathy Hagan. Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns to the podium to conduct Blanchard’s second Met premiere. Director James Robinson, whose productions of Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Porgy and Bess brought down the house, oversees the staging. Camille A. Brown, whose choreography electrified audiences in Fire and Porgy, also returns.
The play is set in the backyard of two adjoining houses in the working class neighborhood of South Philadelphia. They are about to celebrate the 21st birthday of Francis Geminiani, a Harvard student, when two classmate friends from Harvard and Yale, Judith and Randy, show up unexpectedly. Since there isn’t a spare bedroom in either house they pitch a tent in the backyard. Francis’ classmates, the wealthy Judith seeks romance with Francis not realizing that her brother Randy is the object of Francis’ unexpressed affection. Each of the characters in the play are dysfunctional to some degree and their celebration of Francis’ birthday brings out the best of comedy and drama. The birthday party is a series of comic incidents that provide laughter and serious realizations that lead up to the final joyous ending. The crazy fast moving celebration leaves each character a bit wiser and happier having celebrated Francis’ 21st birthday.
