Cast in Portland, credit: Christine Dong, Portland Opera
In an emotionally charged Opera, the Detroit Opera is bringing Pulitzer Prize, winning composer Anthony Davis’s The Central Park Five to its stage this May, marking a landmark cultural moment for Detroit and American opera alike. With performances on May 10, 16, and 18, this searing operatic work confronts systemic racism head-on, telling the true story of five Black and Latino teenagers wrongly accused and convicted of a brutal 1989 assault in New York’s Central Park.
Directed by acclaimed theater visionary Nataki Garrett, the production features a newly expanded orchestration by Davis himself, commissioned by Detroit Opera. The company, known for pushing the boundaries of traditional opera, continues its commitment to contemporary, socially urgent storytelling following its acclaimed 2022 staging of Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.
“The Opera House is everybody’s house,” Garrett said.
“Black people have been performing opera, writing opera for centuries.”
At its core, The Central Park Five is a reckoning, a cry for justice that resonates far beyond the confines of the stage. The opera traces the ordeal of Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, and Raymond Santana, who were vilified by media, prosecuted without credible evidence, and imprisoned for years before DNA evidence exonerated them. Their story, brought into popular consciousness by Ken Burns’s 2012 documentary and Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us (2019), remains painfully relevant amid ongoing wrongful convictions nationwide.
Detroit Opera’s production emphasizes that this is not just a New York story, but a Detroit one, too.
“The story may not be easy, but it is one we all must attend,” said Yuval Sharon, Detroit Opera’s artistic director.
“Anthony Davis’s work challenges the opera world to grow, and Detroit audiences have shown they’re ready.”
Productions like The Central Park Five underscore the urgent importance of telling Black stories through opera and theater, mediums long dominated by Eurocentric narratives. As noted in The Michigan Chronicle’s coverage of the stage play Ruby, which tells the story of Ruby Bridges and her courageous stand as a young girl desegregating a New Orleans school, there is a rising movement to ensure that Black experiences are seen, heard, and remembered. Just as Ruby honors civil rights through narrative, The Central Park Five confronts the enduring legacy of racial injustice and the resilience of those who endure it. These stories aren’t just history, they are fuel for dialogue, empathy, and social change.
The cast is anchored by both new and returning performers, including Freddie Ballentine as Kevin Richardson and Markel Reed as Yusef Salaam. Familiar faces to Detroit Opera audiences include Babatunde Akinboboye and Catherine Martin, while Brianna J. Robinson, a Detroit Opera Resident Artist, takes on the dual role of Antron’s and Kevin’s mother.
At the podium is Anthony Parnther, in his Detroit Opera debut. A versatile conductor whose credits span Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to The Mandalorian, Parnther brings a cinematic and contemporary energy to Davis’s hybrid score, which fuses classical opera with blues, funk, and hip-hop rhythms. Davis even samples Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing”, a nod to the teens’ wrongful association with the term “wilding” used in their prosecution.
“The prosecution and conviction of the Central Park Five reflects the anxiety of white America as hip-hop became part of mainstream American culture,” Davis says.
“Central Park was the battleground between Harlem to the North and the affluent East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan.”
Detroit Opera’s production arrives as Michigan itself reckons with its legacy of wrongful convictions. Between 1974 and 1993, at least 24 individuals in Wayne County were wrongfully imprisoned. With 169 known exonerations since 1989, Michigan ranks fifth in the nation, underscoring the opera’s timely relevance.
Justin Hopkins and Daniel Belcher, Photo by Detroit Opera, Austin T. Richey
Justin Hopkins, who plays Antron McCray, highlighted the tremendous sense of responsibility involved in portraying men who are alive, who are very real, very present, and so important in our modern history.
“We want to make sure that we are sending the right message. We’re honoring the exonerated five, the Central Park Five,” Hopkins said.
“We’re not only entertaining, but we are educating, we’re uplifting, and we’re motivating people to leave the theater fuller than when they came in.”
As part of its community engagement, Detroit Opera has partnered with the Wright Museum of African American History, the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and Restorative Justice Detroit for a series of discussions and events. In March, Dr. Yusef Salaam, now a poet, activist, and New York City councilmember, spoke at the Wright Museum, offering a powerful firsthand account of survival and transformation.
“I hope that there are people who come into the room to witness what other people’s lives are like and it allows them to access a deeper part of their own empathy,” Garrett said.
“In that room, we become those boys, we get to see our experiences reflected.”
