With all of the violence and turmoil plaguing Chicago’s inner-city youth, it seems like opera singer and composer Adrian Dunn’s innovative production, Hopera:
With all of the violence and turmoil plaguing Chicago’s inner-city youth, it seems like opera singer and composer Adrian Dunn’s innovative production, Hopera: A Fallen Hero, is making perfect timing. The 24- year-old Cleveland Heights, Ohio native will be showing “Hopera” at the DuSable Museum of African American History Nov. 12 – 15.
The production, which is based on the Shakespearean tragedy Othello and features an infusion of hip hop and opera (thus the name “hopera”), tells the story of a young African American man named Obadiah King who, while aspiring to become a successful writer, is confronted with an abundance of hurdles, including family struggles, racial issues and violence.
The show’s young creator, Dunn, who has lived in Chicago for six years, said that he developed the storyline after studying Othello in an opera history class as a student at Roosevelt University’s College of Performing Arts, where he received a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance.
“I was one of the only African American students in class, and the teacher asked if it was important in the opera that Othello was Black, and the students overwhelmingly said no,” Dunn told the Defender. “At that point, I realized that our problem was ignorance …Shakespeare makes very few mistakes about things like color and very rarely did he ever use race in such a way. There had to be some significance. I kind of put it into perspective that a lot of folks are oblivious about what African American men go through.”
Dunn said that Hopera examines the inner psyche of African American men in the 21st century. “As I began to study the story of the opera, I began to realize that Othello was a modern day Black man,” he explained. “All of the issues that come with Othello’s story are very relevant to right now. Plus, we talk about teen pregnancy, alcoholism, absent fathers, Black male suicide. It’s all about Obadiah wanting to become a New York Times bestselling author, but in order for him to get there, he has to face all of this adversity.”
Dunn said that the main character in Hopera is similar to himself, and in many ways, Obadiah’s story is very close to his own.
Since he was young, Dunn said that he has had a passion for music. Though he grew up singing gospel music in church, he soon developed an interest in orchestral music.
“I joined the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus and began to experience orchestral music at a very high level. That’s really what inspired me, and I think that connection between gospel and opera in my head was very clear, musically.”
Inspired by such diverse musical influences as Beethoven, Maurice Ravel, Rappers Jay-Z, Lupe Fiasco and Common, and the desire to create more opportunities for young African American classical singers, Dunn founded his production company, HoperaWorld, in 2008.
“I had taken my idea to Chicago Opera Theater. I’ve taken it to the Chicago Symphony and they all rejected it basically because it wasn’t a traditional Western European form or it wasn’t even a traditional Western European story,” he explained. “I was writing my own piece and they didn’t want that, which is very frustrating because opera can be very conservative. It’s not open to innovation, to new things.
“I figured that if I, as a young African American male, could not break through in a larger organization, then I needed to start my own thing and not complain about it but do something about it. So I wanted to create a company that employed people of color and pushed opera to the limit. To have opera singers who can rap, opera singers who can dance and really create a product that speaks to the 21st century and to what’s happening right now.”
He said that his goal with HoperaWorld is to bring opera to a new audience that may have never been exposed to it before.
“In the opera world, my frustration is that there’s no work about Black people being done at all,” he said. “When you go sit in the audience, you don’t see any people of color. It’s hard, and I think that bringing forth Hopera has the opportunity to force new ground in the opera world and in entertainment, overall, to take it to another cultural level and make opera accessible for all people.”
The show’s cast features 12 performers, including professional opera singers, actors, dancers and hip hop artists. Dunn, who is the music director, said that the cast is composed of young people of color all under the age of 30, some of whom have studied at various conservatories, art institutions and colleges.
Dunn looks forward to taking Hopera to Broadway.
“I would like be able to take this show to the world because I believe in it more than anything,” he said. “I think it’s a spectacular show, not only because I wrote it, but because it’s something that must be told. I want people to comment and really experience a highlevel performance from an African American cast. The musical fusion of the form is unique and it’s innovative.”
In the future, Dunn said that he sees himself running his own production company and working for other people to produce shows in hopera, combining hip hop and opera. He also wants to work with other opera companies and hip hop groups to produce music that brings that element to all genres of music.
Additionally, he said that he wants to attend graduate school and eventually compose and write music for other artists.
But first, Dunn is focused on getting Hopera out to the masses.
“There really isn’t anything out there like it right now. I can pretty confidently say that,” he said. “I really believe that African Americans should know that there are young professionals who are doing some amazing things, not just positive things, but remarkably positive things and we need community support first and foremost. We honestly need to support ourselves.”
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