I'm Jonathan K-PART and welcome to K-PART.

Fire Shut Up in My Bones is the poignant memoir written by New York Times column this

Charles Blow in 2014.

Renowned trumpeter and composer Terrence Blanchard, along with LeBretis Casey Lemons,

turned it into an opera that debuted at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2019.

But in September 2021, Fire Shut Up in My Bones broke through a huge artistic barrier.

It only did it open the new season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

It made history as the first opera by a black composer to be performed at the men.

For Blow, as amazing as it is to have his life turned into an opera, having his experience

being molested as a child and bullied is difficult to relive.

I will say that, you know, it is a strange feeling and I could not stay at it, right?

So I've seen the opera once in St. Louis, I saw it once in New York and that was about

as much as I could that I wanted to see it.

For me, this was a very part of my life and I resurrected it to write about it because

I thought it would be helpful to other people.

In this conversation first recorded on December 2 for Washington Post Live, Blow and Blanchard

talk more about what it took to turn Fire Shut Up in My Bones from memoir to operatic masterpiece.

So, Terrence, I'll start with you.

What did it mean to you to have this work open the season at the men?

Well, I mean, it meant a lot, obviously, you know, to be the first thing to open the season

after this 22 month period of isolation.

You know, it was a really powerful thing for the performance involved for all of the people on the staff

...