A few weeks later, I explored the Howard University library to check out as many opera videos as possible to watch in my leisure time. To my surprise, one of the videos featured Howard University’s music department voice chair, the late Carmen Balthrop, who taught one of the vocal studios I frequented while accompanying her students under the careful supervision of the late Sylvia Olden Lee. I was so excited to see her on the cover of this opera that I immediately ran across the campus to her office to inquire about the video and the opera featuring her in the lead role.

That opera was Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha from Gunther Schuller’s Houston Grand Opera production. I immediately felt an even closer connection with Carmen Balthrop and began to dream more and more about having a career inclusive of opera. At the end of my freshman year, I decided to stay in Washington, D.C. for the summer. As I began packing up my belongings, I thought I’d finally look into the brown folder that the strange graduate student handed me a few months back; it was the piano/vocal score to Scott Joplin’s opera, Treemonisha. Instantaneously, I knew I had a divine connection to the work. Over the years, I’ve tried to mount productions of Joplin’s opera more than four times with several notable performing arts institutions, three in America and one in Europe, but each time it fell through.

The mere fact that I am finally seeing this calling, vision, and assignment come to fruition is fulfilling in quite an indescribable way. One of my final memories of my mentor, the late Jessye Norman, is her telling me, “Damien, you must champion the work of Scott Joplin. He was never given the honor he was due. Please promise me you’ll finish and complete Treemonisha as you’ve started out to do.” So here we are in a moment where time, destiny, and purpose meet: a new adaptation of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha.

Treemonisha has served as an operatic “hush harbor” for generations, allowing our people to express their full humanity in safety and respect; an artistic and musical ark where our bodies could gather in pursuit of freedom, fantasy, and fellowship. A sacred, magical, Afrocentric, timeless space that has illuminated the power of the human spirit where our dignity as a people is inviolate!

The brilliant vision and incredible talent of Damien Sneed and Karen Chilton have taken this beloved American opera and rooted it through a much-needed new perspective for the twenty-first century, anchored in rich African traditions like Sankofa and Afrofuturism. I am thrilled that this dynamic new interpretation of Treemonisha makes its world premiere at one of our nation’s top opera companies, the historic Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, during a time when both the city of St. Louis and our nation are in the midst of a revolutionary artistic and cultural reckoning and awakening.

As a storyteller, I’ve always seen the empty space of the stage as an opportunity for civilized discourse and social change. In our noisy, often divided world, the theater remains one of the few sacred places where people of different backgrounds, cultures, gender identities, and communities can still sit in the quiet dark together, think a while, and be awakened. It is a gathering place where one can gain a richer connection to the fragility of beauty and pain that exists in all art and life! Our Treemonisha courageously and unapologetically explores the full spectrum of human challenges. It celebrates the power of the human spirit and seeks to create community with joy. The opera illuminates the epicness of Black joy, romantic relationships, loss, grief, faith, tradition, feminism, and the fight to pursue your dreams against unimaginable odds. Treemonisha urges us all to treat our wounds and dreams gently, and to give ourselves and the ones we love grace, mercy, and and gratitude. It is a cogent reminder that true love never dies! And last, but certainly not least, an enthusiastic shout-out to our wonderfully gifted creative team, crew, entire OTSL staff, and the magnificent Treemonisha company!