Afrofuturist opera `Lalovavi’ to premiere in Cincinnati on Juneteenth 2025

By RONALD BLUM
Associated Press

The Cincinnati Opera will present an Afrofuturist-themed production next year that commemorates the Juneteenth holiday. The production will mark the first of three commissions from the company to all-Black creative teams at Cincinnati Music Hall. “Lalovavi” will be presented by the Cincinnati Opera on June 19, 2025. Kevin Day is composing it while Tifara Brown is writing the libretto and Kimille Howard will direct the staging. It will be the opening presentation of the company’s Black Opera Project. “Lalovavi” means “love” in the Tut language created by enslaved Black Americans. The three-act work is set in the year 2119. Discussions began in 2019 when Morris Robinson starred in Cincinnati’s production of “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.”