The Potential of Operatic Spaces Today, Dr. Naomi André
DATE: March 18, 2026
TIME: 4:30 PM
LOCATION: Umrath Lounge
Details about directions & parking located below.
For many, the opera house conjures images of a past glory that has faded in importance and relevance. Yet even though its stodginess might seem out of date, today operatic spaces are being transformed in multiple ways that speak directly to our current realities. As the canonic repertory is performed in thoughtful and provocative productions, the people involved with opera (performers, directors, administrators) are expanding the way familiar stories are being told. Additionally, the types of narratives being portrayed include inventive and ground-breaking themes and situations. The most compelling opera companies are presenting traditional operas in novel ways along with creating paths for innovative newer works. A key element in opera today is for the audience to see something that connects to who they are and represents a wide range of experiences and situations. In this talk I explore these themes that set the groundwork for my models of shadow operatic cultures and engaged musicology. This presentation will also include discussions of Winnie: The Opera (Ndodana-Breen/Wilensky/Vundla) and Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Blanchard/Lemmons).
Naomi André is the David G. Frey Distinguished Professor in the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan in Afroamerican and African Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Residential College.
Her publications include the books Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement and Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera and co-edited collections Blackness in Opera; African Performance Arts and Political Acts; and The Music of Mzilikazi Khumalo: Language, Culture, and Song in South Africa. Actively engaged with performance today, she has worked with opera companies, symphonies, and is a founding member of the Black Opera Research Network (BORN). She was the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera (2019-2024) and has served on the Boards of the American Musicological Society, the Kurt Weill Foundation, and Detroit Opera.
She has served on the Graduate Alumni Council for Harvard University’s Graduate School of Art and Sciences, the Executive Committee for the Criminal Justice Program at the American Friends Service Committee (Ann Arbor, MI), the Board of Directors for the American Musicological Society, and is currently on the boards of Detroit Opera and the Kurt Weill Foundation. From 2019-2024, Dr. André served as the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera. In her role, she advised Seattle Opera staff and leadership on matters of race and gender in opera; consulted in artistic planning as it relates to representation of race and gender; participated in company panel discussions, podcast recordings; and contributed essays to opera programs.
The keynote will take place at Umrath Lounge, located on the Washington University Danforth Campus.
For those of you coming from off campus, we recommend parking in the Danforth University Center (DUC) Parking Garage (You can access the DUC Garage by the Wallace and Forsyth intersection (northbound)). Visitor parking is available on the first level or on the down ramp to the second level. To exit the garage, take the North elevator up and go East towards Graham Chapel.
To view a map of campus, click here. Umrath Lounge is location #177 (F4) on the map. The Danforth University Center Parking Garage is location #200 (E4) on the map.
Parking is free for visitors after 5:00pm in yellow spaces.
This visit is sponsored in part through funding from the Office of the Provost: Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program.
Belonging in Opera is presented by the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Washington University’s Department of Music.