Susie Self’s brilliant new opera, Quilt Song, premiered on Friday, October 19, 2018, at the Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham, 100 years since the premiere there of Abraham Lincoln, the play by John Drinkwater from which much of the text for the opera is drawn. Woven around the assassination of Lincoln are the stories of Rosa Parks, civil rights activist, John Drinkwater himself as The Poet, his Muse, the bus driver James Blake, on whose bus Rosa took her fateful stand against racism, and The Boatman who ferries passengers across the River Styx. Mixing historical fact with fantasy, fabulous choruses, and beautiful solos, the opera blends musical styles and stories in a quilt-like fashion.
Quilt Song by Susie Self
