This opera tells the story of 'The Central Park Five,' Donald Trump's role included
By Neda Ulaby. May 10, 20256:00 AM ET. Photo Austin T. Richey/Detroit Opera
At a rehearsal last month for the opera The Central Park Five, singers wearing soft athletic pants and baseball caps warmed up by a piano. The opera is based on a real-life tragedy, about a group of Black and brown teenagers wrongly charged and imprisoned for the brutal attack on a female jogger in New York's Central Park in 1989.
The Central Park Five won the Pulitzer Prize for music for composer Anthony Davis in 2020; it debuted the year before at the Long Beach Opera in California. The opera has also been staged at Oregon's Portland Opera. Now, the Detroit Opera is producing the work from May 10-18 in Michigan.