Afrofuturist opera `Lalovavi' to premiere in Cincinnati on Juneteenth 2025

The Cincinnati Opera will present an Afrofuturist-themed production next year that commemorates the Juneteenth holiday and would mark the first of three commissions from the company to all-Black creative teams.

“Lalovavi" is composed by Kevin Day with Tifara Brown writing the libretto and Kimille Howard set to direct the staging at Cincinnati Music Hall, the company said Thursday in announcing the opening presentation of its Black Opera Project. It will premiere on June 19, 2025.

“Lalovavi” means “love” in the Tut language created by enslaved Black Americans, and the three-act work is set in the year 2119. Discussions began in 2019 when Morris Robinson, a noted bass opera singer, starred in the Cincinnati Opera's production of “The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" and told company artistic director Evans Mirageas there were not any operas reflecting Black American culture.

“It was about the same time that `Black Panther' had come out and I started comparing,” said Robinson, who is Black American. “There’s got to be a better way to present us on stage than what we’re seeing now. This can't be it.”