Critics want to shutter a new opera about Emmett Till. Here's what its creators say

While the creators of a a new opera about Emmett Till hope it will inspire white people to confront racism, others worry it depicts Black trauma for white entertainment while masquerading as activism.

Transcript

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

An operatic work is premiering tonight about Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old who was lynched in 1955 after a white woman says he whistled at her. The producers of the opera say the story will hopefully inspire white people to confront racism. Others, though, worry it depicts Black trauma for white entertainment while masquerading as activism. Quincy Walters of member station WBUR reports.

MARY D WATKINS: Dun, dun - maybe, no, that's not that it.

QUINCY WALTERS, BYLINE: At a recent rehearsal for "Emmett Till: A New American Opera," composer Mary D. Watkins works on some melodies with a pianist.

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UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) They hung him (ph)...

WALTERS: The 82-year-old says working on this opera has been cathartic in a sense. She says, as a Black woman born just two years before Till was, she lived that history.

WATKINS: My mother woke me up before school. And I heard her walking through the house, wailing. She said, they killed him, and they killed him 'cause he whistled at a white woman. I thought about that probably, gee, every day for a while.

WALTERS: Writing the music has made something positive out of the PTSD Watkins says she experienced after Till's murder.

WATKINS: And I had a lot of anger about it. I think this is a good way for me to work, to do what I'm doing with this.

WALTERS: But concerns about the opera have eclipsed Watkins' sentiments. A Change.org petition with over 12,000 signers and counting calls for the opera to never see the light of day - a main reason being the opera was conceived and the words of it are written by Clare Coss, a white woman. It's based on a play she penned called "Emmett Down In My Heart" in the early '90s. Sitting in her New York City apartment recently, the 86-year-old explained why writing this felt important.

CLARE COSS: I had this spiritual mandate, oh, 'cause I don't know where else it came from.

WALTERS: On top of all the other criticism, the opera includes a fictitious white woman, a schoolteacher who witnesses what happens and doesn't intervene. By the end, though, she tells her students about the atrocity. And while Coss says the opera is for everyone, she feels the inclusion of that sort of character is important for predominantly white opera-going audiences to see.

COSS: A character for the white audience to emulate, admire, follow, cheer on.

WALTERS: And she was taken aback by the recent scrutiny.

COSS: In all these years, from when I started the play from the early '90s to last week, nobody ever said a word to me, or nobody questioned me.

WALTERS: But the conversation about race in America has evolved in recent years, she says, thanks to movements like Black Lives Matter.

COSS: It's a moment where I really understand the anger.

GARRETT MCQUEEN: If this is the first time she's hearing critiques, I can't help but to believe that she isn't actually engaging a vast diversity of Black thought and Black individuals.

WALTERS: Garrett McQueen is a classical bassoonist and an advocate for Black people in music. He's also with the Black Opera Alliance, which put out a statement on social media saying, too often Black people's trauma is often rehashed on stage for white people's entertainment. Earlier this month, Emmett Till's family renewed their calls for charges against the white woman who accused Emmett Till. And because of that, Garrett says, an opera like this isn't going to fix things.

MCQUEEN: The solution would be if each of those people who took the time to pay their money and go see that opera went to their racist uncle or children or neighbor and pushed them to do something, went into their workplace and said, you need to be donating to antiracist causes and organizations. And this opera, at the end of the day, isn't, in itself, a solution or progress.

WALTERS: We reached Emmett Till's family, and they have no comment for this story. This opera ends with a court scene where the killers get off scot-free.

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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Not guilty.

WALTERS: And the audience is supposed to leave the theater with the magnitude of what has happened and what continues to happen to Black people year after year. Tickets range from $20 to $1,000. A portion is supposed to go to the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. And organizers say they are selling out. A couple of days ago, the producers of the opera and the Black Opera Alliance had a brief email correspondence to express their points of view. And it seems both parties walked away unchanged.

For NPR News, I'm Quincy Walters. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.