Music by Kevin Day 
Libretto by Tifara Brown

Sung in English and Tut* with projected English captions

WITH EACH STEP, LOVE’S BEACON SHALL SHINE BRIGHT

Set in the year 2119, we follow the journey of Persephone, the youngest teenage daughter of the Primus of Atlas, formerly the city of Atlanta. Currency and status in Atlas are determined based on the presence of Syndicus, a rare gene that promotes vitality and longevity. When Persephone is found to possess this gene, she is betrayed by her family and must run for her life. She is thrust into an epic adventure, uncovering a hidden past that leads her to discover love’s true meaning and the power to determine her own destiny.

Lalovavi is the first work in Cincinnati Opera’s groundbreaking, three-opera commissioning initiative, The Black Opera Project, that engages Black creators to develop new works celebrating Black stories.

*Tut is a language that is indigenous to Black Americans and passed down from their enslaved ancestors, who developed Tut as a mechanism for learning how to read and write when it was illegal for them to do so. The title of the opera, “lalovavi,” is the Tut word for “love.”

TICKETS

Tickets for Lalovavi will go on sale in the fall of 2024 as part of Cincinnati Opera’s 2025 Summer Festival season ticket packages. Tickets to individual performances of Lalovavi will go on sale in April 2025.