Standing at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking a sea of people, one man declared he had a dream. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was that man. On that day, almost everyone present vowed to keep his dream alive.
It is King's legacy and the vow sworn by the crowd that day that make the opera "The Promise," a compelling story. The opera opens today at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre.
"It's a very powerful story," said Dr. John Baur, composer of the opera and U of M professor. "The story lends itself well to Opera. It is a story of great triumph and great tragedy."
Baur said "The Promise" was his way of showing the different sides of Dr. King and his life. It is his way to express the true emotions of how King felt, what he was thinking and how, despite his inner turmoil, he continued to work for the civil rights cause.
Baur said that he also had doubts of his own in composing the opera. One of his main concerns was the fact that he himself is white, he said in an interview with U of M officials.
"I was worried about how the black community would respond to a white man telling this story," Baur said. "It is, after all, an enormously complex one to tell."
The opera incorporates not only pieces of King's sermons and speeches, but also visions of him as a sufferer for the cause.
Lonnie Latham, associate dean of minority affairs, said this opera would have an impact on African-American students.
"I think the impact on African-American students will be a good one," Latham said. "It will help them realize what the dream actually was and that it's still there. There are still fights and battles to fight."
Last spring Latham and a handful of others had a sneak preview of the opera at the Martin Luther King Jr. award program, where one or two acts of the opera were performed.
Members of the African-American student body are looking forward to the opera in hopes that the message of King's struggle will be shown."It is a major positive for students to get to see the inner workings of the civil rights movement," said Noel Moore, sophomore Biology major. "They get to see what was going through their minds and they get a glimpse of how people felt."
In the three years it took Baur to compose the opera, he went through a period of deep thought, he said, about what he wanted to accomplish and what he wanted the students to take home.
"I want to retell the story of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s because students of this age have no recollection of what actually happened, except what they have studied in books," Baur said.
Baur feels that the opera is quite appropriate for Memphis, since it is the place of King's death. That is one of the many reasons why The University decided this was an important theatrical event from the moment the idea was proposed. They have done everything in their power to make sure that the opera was performed, he said.
The University and Baur seem to understand the great importance of King's legacy and the need for it to be shown to students.
"Any type of informative history broken down in a different form, especially an attention-getting form ... is a good idea," said Alexandria Taylor senior psychology major.
School leaders, especially those who remember the struggle, hope students will benefit from the opera.
"One day the dream will come true, and the dream is that all men are created equal," said Latham.
