DENYCE GRAVES - soprano

DENYCE GRAVES makes her company debut at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis next summer with Champion, a new opera by composer Terence Blanchard and playwright Michael Cristofer. The work relates the struggles of boxing great Emile Griffith, who accidentally killed an opponent in the ring and later came out as bisexual. Aubrey Allicock and Arthur Woodley portray the younger and elder versions of Emile, and Graves plays the fighter's mother.