The New Orleans Opera has revived ALLONS, a series of virtual lectures that began last fall. For the opera company, it’s a fun title with a double meaning: the English translation of the French title is “Let’s Go!” and it’s also an acronym for Adventurous Lectures for Lovers of Opera Now Streaming.  General Director Clare Burovac hosts this series of lectures, all of which are presented on Zoom and led by New Orleans opera scholars.

Two lectures remain in the Spring 2021 series, both of which have Louisiana connections.

On Thursday, March 25, at 7 p.m., Dr. Sakinah Davis, assistant professor of voice and director of Opera Workshop at Xavier University, will discuss Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the 2014 novel by Louisiana-born New York Times columnist Charles Blow who tells the story of his coming of age as a young Black man in the Deep South. Louisiana jazz composer Terence Blanchard chose this memoir as the subject of his second opera, which premiered at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2019 and will become the first opera composed by a Black musician to be presented on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Davis will explore the composition, Mr. Blanchard’s music, and this opera’s place in operatic history.

On Thursday, April 8, at 7 p.m. join a discussion about Freedom Ride, a new opera that explores and celebrates the Freedom Riders, hundreds of brave young civil rights activists who risked their lives to desegregate interstate travel. On May 15, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders were flown to New Orleans after having been violently attacked in Alabama.  Upon their arrival they were hidden away on Xavier University’s campus by Dr. Norman C. Francis, a secret so dangerous, it was not revealed until many years later, which forms the basis for this opera. This lecture is led by Dr. Wilfred Delphin, artist-in-residence at Xavier University with Dr. Dan Shore, composer of Freedom Ride, and Dara Rahming, former faculty member at Xavier and the singer for whom the title role was written. Join them as they discuss the events of 1961, how the Freedom Riders successfully desegregated interstate travel in the South, and the opera that was born from that tumultuous period.

Tickets are $12 and may be purchased here.