\n<\/p>\n
Near the end of \u201cBlind Injustice,\u201d an opera about six people who were wrongfully convicted of crimes and later freed, the exonerees reflect on the time they have spent behind bars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes a person strong enough to endure injustice?\u201d they sing. \u201cWhat makes a person free?\u201d<\/p>\n
Questions of prejudice, guilt and resilience run throughout \u201cBlind Injustice<\/a>,\u201d composed by Scott Davenport Richards to a libretto by David Cote, which has its East Coast premiere on Friday at Peak Performances<\/a> at Montclair State University.<\/p>\n The work, which was commissioned by Cincinnati Opera<\/a> and premiered<\/a> there in 2019, explores the effects of wrongful convictions on the prisoners and their families, and the help to overturn their convictions that they received from the Ohio Innocence Project<\/a>, a nonprofit organization at the University of Cincinnati College of Law.<\/p>\n One man who was sent to death row describes spending 39 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder. A bus driver falsely accused of sexual abuse describes the pain of being separated from her four children. \u201cOh Lord, protect them!\u201d she sings. \u201cOh, God! Deliver me!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And a mother of a young man accused of murder pleads for his release. \u201cSmash bricks into dust!\u201d she sings. \u201cBust it! Bust it! Bust it! Bust this goddamned prison down!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBlind Injustice,\u201d written for a cast of 12 singers, packs the details<\/a> of the prisoners\u2019 lives and legal cases into a 90-minute show. The opera is described as a work of fiction, though it is based largely on true stories.<\/p>\n \u201cBlind Injustice\u201d offers a spirited call for reforms to the American criminal justice system, which is portrayed as callous, capricious and unrelenting. It is \u201can opera about stories a society tells itself to justify routine dehumanization of its most vulnerable citizens,\u201d the creative team says in a program note.<\/p>\n Richards, whose score draws on jazz, funk, blues and hip-hop, said the scale of the music and drama were meant to match the importance of the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe have people sitting in prison in horrible conditions who have done nothing and don\u2019t deserve it,\u201d he said after a recent rehearsal. \u201cWe should be jumping up and down and yelling as loud as we can. And we have some singers who are jumping up and singing as loud as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n The opera got its start in 2017, when the Ohio Innocence Project hosted a happy hour in Cincinnati with the Young Professionals Choral Collective, a performing arts group. Afterward, KellyAnn Nelson, the collective\u2019s founding artistic director, contacted Cincinnati Opera about finding a way to highlight the work of the Ohio Innocence Project, which has helped free 42 people since its founding in 2003.<\/p>\n Cote, Richards and Robin Guarino, a stage director and dramaturg, were eventually tapped to create a full-length opera. They shaped it with the help of the book \u201cBlind Injustice,\u201d by the Ohio Innocence Project\u2019s co-founder and director, Mark A. Godsey, a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. They took some liberties, including inventing the character of Alesha, a law student working with the innocence project, who serves as a narrator.<\/p>\n Guarino, with the help of Godsey, interviewed the exonerees with Cote, and recalled being struck by their generosity and grace in the face of injustice. One man, Laurese Glover,<\/a> who was wrongfully convicted of murder, told them about the despair he felt while being held in isolation in a room he called \u201cthe hole.\u201d Another, Clarence Elkins<\/a>, described collecting DNA evidence from a fellow prisoner\u2019s cigarette butt to help clear his name. The creative team incorporated quotes and descriptions from the interviews into the opera; about 40 percent of the libretto is verbatim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe had these people who had had so much taken away from them,\u201d Guarino said. \u201cWe were just trying to give back by telling their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A central challenge, Cote said, was giving enough attention to each character\u2019s account. \u201cAny one of these cases,\u201d he said, \u201cwould have been a full-length opera.\u201d<\/p>\n In Montclair, \u201cBlind Injustice\u201d is being presented in a more abstract production than the premiere. The main characters inhabit cells marked by yellow tape. They cope by painting or praying, and a 27-member chorus helps amplify their accounts.<\/p>\n Ted Sperling, who is conducting the show\u2019s 12-member orchestra, said that the material could sometimes be overwhelming.<\/p>\n \u201cI found myself having to keep it together today,\u201d he said after a recent rehearsal. \u201cThere\u2019s just a pause \u2014 I want to take to let something land, but if I let it land too much, then I can barely go on myself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBlind Injustice\u201d has grown more relevant since its premiere, cast members said, especially after the police killing of George Floyd<\/a> in 2020 prompted a nationwide conversation about social inequities and discrimination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt can speak even larger volumes now that the conversation isn\u2019t so taboo,\u201d said the baritone Eric Shane Heatley, a member of the original cast, who sings the role of Rickey Jackson, the man who spent 39 years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Heatley has gotten to know Jackson since the premiere, and he said that he was struck by Jackson\u2019s calm, as well as how he had tried to move beyond the trauma of his experience.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has definitely shown me that there is work to do,\u201d he said, \u201cbut also, there is hope.\u201d<\/p>\n