Detroit Opera enters Trump’s hair with “Central Park Five”

A rehearsal of “The Central Park Five“, An opera on black and Latinos boys was wrongly sentenced for raped a jogger of Central Park, had only a few days this month when the tenor who plays Donald J. Trump began to sing.

“These are animals!” Monsters!… Support our police! Bring the death penalty back! ” There is beuglé.

The Opera, which tells how young men were forced to confess and were exempt later, represents President Trump as an inflammatory figure who, in 1989, bought several newspaper advertisements in full page which demonized “traveling bands of wild criminals”, adding: “I want them to be afraid”.

When the work – composed by Anthony Davis with a booklet by Richard Wesley – created In California in 2019, Mr. Trump’s approval notes were weak and the Democrats are looking forward to challenging him.

Now, as a new production opens next month at Detroit OperaThe parameter is quite different. Trump is a resurrected and embedded political force which, since his return to duties, has exercised the power to close the federal agencies, to reduce subsidies and law firms and the universities of the strong arms, which have all led certain opponents to worry about reprisals.

None of this was lost on Detroit Opera, while society is approaching for the return and hopes for applause. His management team includes the dangers of mounting a production that agitates a red cape during a reactive and inactive presidency.

Surprisingly, the Opera is partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with some $ 40,000 from the cost of $ 1 million in production from a federal subsidy. It was allocated and paid, before the agency cancels most of its existing subsidies in the direction of the Trump administration.

Todd Strange, the tenor who plays Mr. Trump, said in an interview that he could not deny to feel a certain apprehension to portray a president who regularly strikes his detractors. However, said Mr. Strange, it was important to move forward.

“Fear cannot help but do this,” he said. “I’m not going to flee the role.”

The challenges were certainly lower during Mr. Trump’s first term, while he was largely focused on broader questions and left cultural organizations alone. The second round was different. The president was targeted directly on the institutions of culture and the arts – to be inserted as chief of John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and contesting the leadership and programming of the Smithsonian institution in an effort to align them with his vision of America.

Mr. Trump has critical The Kennedy Center for celebrating “Radical Left Lunatics” and the Smithsonian for future “Under the influence of a divisor ideology and centered on the breed.”

But Detroit Opera says that he is prepared for what could be imminent, that he has confirmed the support of the members of the board of directors, alerted the donors, considered the risks and takes stock of his main mission.

“This play deserves so much to say,” said Yuval Sharon, artistic director of the company. “We are not a political organization. We are a cultural organization which serves the city of Detroit and the large region. And we do not take a position with this opera, but it will obviously be inflammatory to have the character of Donald Trump on stage. ”

Patty Isacson Sabee, president and chief executive officer, said that she thought it was important to have “a good fear”, adding: “It will help me make the best decisions about how to take care of everyone”.

The company has implemented additional precautions – strengthening the security and preparation of public members for metal detectors at the door.

Detroit Opera also enlisted an employee assistance program for this production in case the artists, the creative team or the staff decide that they need additional support.

Mr. Davis, the composer of the work, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020, said it was a moment in the country that calls for artistic courage.

“They try to erase history, be it slavery or the fight of civil rights, or the history of racism,” said Davis. “I don’t think we can allow it. Especially as Fro-Americans, we have to speak. ”

“We now see the victims who occur when there is a rush towards judgment, when they do not follow the procedure, when they ignore the evidence, when you ignore the law, when you ignore the system that protects us,” he added. “This can be the cost of dissent. We are allowed to say what we want, and that is part of our country. That is part of who we are. “

Mr. Trump has bristled in the past about his representation in programs like “Saturday Night Live” which has satiated him, but his reaction to the opera, a more serious work whose booklet incorporates Mr. Trump’s own words, is not known so far.

The White House press office did not respond to requests for comments.

Mr. Trump did not apologize for his characterization of young men, and this month, a federal judge denied To reject a defamation trial they brought against the president.

The five men – Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson and Antron McCray – heard The president of his remarks in a presidential debate in 2024 with Kamala Harris. Trump falsely declared that the men had pleaded guilty to the crime and that someone had been killed during the attack.

To the National Democrat Convention that year, Four of the five men – Who now prefers to be called the five exempt – said what Mr. Trump did to them was devastating and disqualified him for a second term.

The men spent between seven and 13 years in prison until their sentence was overthrown in 2002 when the district prosecutor determined that the attack was committed by a man named Matias Reyes. The five then received a $ 41 million regulations from New York and has since been at the center of the films, including one documentary by Ken Burns, and the Netflix series winner of an Emmy Award “Emmy Award”When they see us», By Ava Duvernay.

As is typical of the calendars of opera production, Detroit has scheduled “The Central Park Five” two years in advance, before Mr. Trump’s aspirations come together. However, when Mr. Sharon, the artistic director, contacted Mr. Davis after the 2024 elections, the composer first thought that he called to cancel the “Central Park Five”.

“It was the first indication for me that there will probably be an excellent cooling effect in our culture,” said Sharon, “that we had to fight actively.”

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Detroit Opera said that he and his colleagues administrators were unwavering in their support for production.

“There was never a time when we questioned this,” said President, Ethan D. Davidson. “The public is increasingly demanding stories that are relevant to their lived experiences. There is no better example of this than the “Central Park Five”. The people of this community want to be represented on stage. »»

Those who represent members of the Central Park Five have expressed a feeling of similar resolution. “The work of art is to be the mirror of the company,” said Chaz’men Williams-Ali, who plays Santana. “Who could have predicted that we would be back with this person in the White House, this opera being what it is? But we are there, and we cannot let ourselves be prevented from being a swing and saying what we have to say.”

Nataki Garrett, the director of the opera, said that as a black woman who had held management positions – she was recently artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare festival – she has already felt vulnerable under Mr. Trump, taking into account her termination Diversity efforts and its history of derogatory women.

“I have to go with my eyes wide open, and I must be naked in front of my own fear,” she said. “But it is of the utmost importance to ensure that this story is told. You continue to tell a story like this until you don’t have it to do it.”