The opera Champion is a joint project of American trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard and American playwright Michael Cristofer.
Five time Grammy award winner Blanchard is composing the music for the opera and Cristofer, Pulitzer Prize awardee for the 1977 play Shadow Box, wrote the libretto based an a life story of Emile Griffith, multiple award winning boxer from the American Virgin Islands.
The cast of Champion is made of Denyce Graves, Aubrey Allicock, Arthur Woodley, Robert Orth and Meredith Arwady, and James Robinson, artistic director of the Opera Theater in St. Louise will be conducting. Opera premiere is scheduled for 2013, when it is announced to be played six times between the 15th and 30st of June.
Blanchard has already composed original music for two Broadway plays, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Motherf**ker With the Hat.