Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 11 - safronia

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 24 A world premiere commission exploring remembrance, repatriation, and justice By antonio c. cuyler, ph.d. On May 28, 1893, in an article about his 9th symphony, also known as From the New World , the New York Herald Tribune quoted Antonin Dvorˇák as saying: “The new American school of music must strike its roots deeply into its own soil…. America can have great and noble music of her own, growing out of the very soil and partaking of its nature — the natural voice of a free and vigorous race.” “Negro melodies,” the great Czech composer continued, should “be the true basis for a distinctively American School of Music.” In a sense responding to Dvorˇák’s call to action, avery r. young, Chicago’s first Poet Laureate, presents safronia , a new musical drama about the Great Migration commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago. As the opera’s composer and librettist, young adopts the role of the Griot, alchemizing autobiography, storytelling, Afro-Surrealism, and Black music as key ingredients for manifesting a Black operatic offering of remembrance, repatriation, and justice. A collage of avery r.young’s extended family,whose narratives help shape the opera. 1,2,& 3. Mary Ann Booker,young’s great aunt and legal guardian. 4.Mary Ann Booker (at right) with friends 5.A family gathering; Willie Booker,young’s great-grandfather and the inspiration for baar, is at far right. 5 photo courtesy of avery r.young safronia : An Operatic Journey 3 2 1 4