Composer Anthony Davis is making a major return to Detroit this weekend with his Pulitzer Prize-winning opera The Central Park Five. The two-act true-story adaptation follows the wrongful convictions of five African American and Latino teenagers accused of assaulting a white female jogger in Central Park in 1989.
The case gripped the nation at the time and still appears in headlines today, primarily because of the involvement of President Donald Trump, who became an outspoken voice in favor of convicting the accused teens.
It’s a major return not just for the powerful and painfully poignant story that blends opera with jazz and blues, but also because Davis’s last opera staged at Detroit Opera — X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, back in 2022 — brought the first sellout to the downtown opera house in over 15 years.
“It was an amazing event,” Davis recalls during an interview with Hour Detroit. “Seeing the Black community particularly in Detroit embracing the opera, I’m excited to see that continue with this story, which is so relevant today. To me, it always feels like coming home to come to Detroit.”
The Central Park Five has been staged before on the West Coast but never with a full orchestra, as it will be performed at Detroit Opera. The opera will open on Saturday, May 10, with two additional performances on Friday, May 16, and Sunday, May 18.
“They’re going to see a world premiere,” Davis says. “A lot of what they’re going to hear is completely new.”
Davis lived through the case as it unfolded back in 1989. For his composition, he pulled from the musical influences and cultural references of the era, blending his appreciation for hip-hop, jazz, and blues into an opera format — one that features five male leads harmonizing throughout the production.
“I thought about how to use rhythm and speech the way hip-hop used rhythm and speech,” Davis says. “They won’t hear overly hip-hop music in this, but it’s there. Hip-hop always looks to the past with sampling, so I’m thinking about the ways that music has built on its past.”
Davis is likely the only composer working in opera who openly references Parliament-Funkadelic as a touchpoint for his orchestration.
“I think opera can have that range,” Davis argues. “Opera is not some old, pale thing. It can be something that comes from African American culture. It can come from Native American culture. It can be a subject of diverse expression. There are a lot of sources that opera can mine in the future to make it relevant today.”
On top of bucking musical expectations within traditional Eurocentric operatic structure, Davis says the story of racial injustice itself is something that deserves to be staged and, like X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, breaks new ground.
“Some composers in the past have been inspired by love stories. I’m inspired by the crisis and the collision of ideology and politics,” Davis says. The opera is directed by Nataki Garrett and is conducted by Anthony Parnther, who is making his Detroit Opera debut.
It’s bound to be a poignant approach that’ll likely speak to Detroiters once again, bringing them out en masse to the Detroit Opera House this Saturday and next weekend.
The Central Park Five will be staged at Detroit Opera May 10, 16, and 18. Tickets are available at detroitopera.org. $25 City of Detroit Resident Rush Tickets are available at the box office the week of the show; go to detroitopera.org/discounts for details.
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