A grant was given to Dr. Roma of Wilmington College’s MATA program:
The Ubuntu Men’s Chorus is one of six prison choirs that are participating in Heartbeat Opera’s upcoming production of FIDELIO. Overall, more than 100 “inside” (incarcerated) singers and 80 “outside” singers (volunteers who visit the prisons) are raising their voices in Beethoven’s iconic “Prisoners’ Chorus.”
In our radical adaptation, a black activist is wrongfully incarcerated. His wife, Leah, disguises herself to infiltrate the system and free him. But when injustice reigns, one woman’s grit may not be enough to save her love. FIDELIO pits corruption against courage, hate against hope.
In the Ubuntu Chorus rehearsal, Dan accompanied on keyboard, and I filmed. New t-shirts with the chorus logo had arrived, and the singers excitedly put them on over their uniforms. After I explained in more detail how the footage I was shooting would be used in the production, however, one singer nicknamed Frederick Douglass raised his hand, saying, “We should take off our t-shirts. We’ve got to represent all men in blue.”
