{"id":2245353,"date":"2026-01-22T11:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2245353"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:04:21","slug":"mn-operas-my-name-is-florence-offers-new-toe-tapping-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/mn-operas-my-name-is-florence-offers-new-toe-tapping-music\/","title":{"rendered":"MN Opera&#8217;s \u2018My Name is Florence\u2019 offers new, toe-tapping music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In 1933, composer Florence Price made history when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuted her music at the Chicago World\u2019s Fair. It marked the first time a major American orchestra performed the work of a Black female composer.<\/p>\n<p>But despite her prolific output and prominent collaborations, Price\u2019s influence faded following her death in 1953. Her work remained largely forgotten until 2009, when a couple renovating an abandoned home south of Chicago <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ualrpublicradio.org\/local-regional-news\/2018-05-04\/after-lost-scores-are-found-in-abandoned-house-musicians-give-life-to-florence-prices-music\">discovered stacks of her manuscripts and personal documents<\/a>. Since then, Price\u2019s compositions have earned a place in the classical canon, performed and arranged by prestigious orchestras worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Minnesota Opera is bringing Price\u2019s life and legacy to the stage with their upcoming world premiere, \u201cMy Name is Florence.\u201d The performance, set to an original score by Atlanta-based composer B.E. Boykin and a libretto by Minneapolis-based playwright Harrison David Rivers, explores Price\u2019s drive and passion.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI have listened to a lot of [Price\u2019s] music over the years, and I\u2019ve always admired that she\u2019s been able to incorporate so many styles and genres,\u201d Boykin said. \u201cYou\u2019ll hear in the opera different styles and genres \u2013 some jazz, some gospel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Boykin, whose work appears on two Grammy-nominated albums, didn\u2019t learn about Price until college. \u201cI don\u2019t think I knew Black women composers were a thing until college,\u201d she said. Price and her contemporaries \u2013 composers like Margaret Bonds, Betty Jackson King and Undine Smith Moore \u2013 opened a door for Boykin\u2019s career aspirations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c40178bd8a2c097969e6d7912c95c5fd\"><em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/arts-culture\/2026\/01\/david-huckfelt-pays-tribute-to-other-songwriters-with-i-was-born-but\/\">Related: David Huckfelt pays tribute to other songwriters with \u2018I Was Born, But\u2026\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n<p>Rivers\u2019 libretto celebrates Price and her matrilineal lineage. \u201cI love the idea that the grandmother had named her daughter Florence, and then the daughter named her daughter Florence,\u201d Rivers said. His work celebrates the \u201cstrength and the experience and the love and the joy that comes in passing down that name and really keeping those women central.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Stepping into a rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, I heard elements of blues, jazz and folk music. From emotional passages sung by the bell-like voice of Flora Hawk to bouncy ensemble rhythms, the score echoes\u00a0Price\u2019s use of American vernacular traditions.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThis is an opera where you\u2019re gonna tap your toe, your shoulders are gonna be moving,\u201d said Rivers, who often left workshops for the show humming Boykin\u2019s melodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Originally from Kansas, Rivers came to the Twin Cities for a Playwrights\u2019 Center fellowship in 2014. He fell in love with the blue sky and the lakes, and within two weeks met his eventual husband. His career has flourished through work with the History Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Theater Latt\u00e9 Da, Trademark Theater and the Playwrights\u2019 Center, in addition to shows across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rivers and Boykin first teamed up for a gala piece for the Minnesota Opera during the pandemic. More recently, the two paired as part of the opera\u2019s New Works Initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Begun in 2008 in response to its success with \u201cThe Grapes of Wrath,\u201d the initiative trails only the Houston Grand Opera for the number of new works commissioned, according to Minnesota Opera\u2019s president and general director, Ryan Taylor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-secondary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-379892a0326c573eba7ee398e05a2f30\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/artscape\/2026\/01\/guthries-somewhere-imagines-a-puerto-rican-family-in-the-shadows-of-west-side-story\/\"><em>Related: Guthrie\u2019s \u2018Somewhere\u2019 imagines a Puerto Rican family in the shadows of \u2018West Side Story\u2019<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n<p>The program focuses on long-term artistic development, paying three composers and three librettists over the course of seven years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe decided we could probably manage this if we attacked it as three song cycles, three chamber operas and three fuller scale operas, so that the combination of those six people working in different partnerships would give us nine new works,\u201d Taylor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Initial conversations began in 2021 followed by more earnest collaboration by the end of 2022. Beginning with \u201cMy Name is Florence,\u201d the opera will share the cohort\u2019s works through 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Part of the challenge, said Taylor, is convincing audiences to listen.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWhen you say that something is a new piece of music, a lot of people assume that it\u2019s going to sound like a tray of upturned flatware on a tile floor,\u201d he said. They want to know, \u201cWill I be able to tap my toe or remember a melody?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For \u201cMy Name is Florence,\u201d Taylor said the answer is a definitive yes. \u201cThe music is infectious. I think it has joy. It has heart in it. And it is still classical. It is still an opera, but it does have all of these other flavors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy Name is Florence\u201d runs Sat., Jan. 31, at 7:30 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m., Sat., Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m., and Sun., Feb. 8, at 2 p.m. at the Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul ($28-$275). More information <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mnopera.org\/season\/2025-2026\/my-name-is-florence\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>You may also enjoy:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-5    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cMara, Queen of the World,\u201d by Rebecca Nichloson<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca Nichloson has a deep, resonant, incredible voice that gave me chills the first time I heard it at the Cedar Cultural Center. She\u2019s also keen to experiment. In her latest work, she\u2019s collaborating with Ashembaga (Ashe) Jaafaru (whom I absolutely loved in Theater Mu\u2019s \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/artscape\/2025\/09\/stellar-performances-drive-maybe-you-could-love-me-a-fresh-take-on-age-old-themes\/\">Maybe You Could Love Me<\/a>\u201d last fall) and two other dancers. The piece traverses time and space between Saint Paul\u2019s Rondo neighborhood and an Alabama plantation circa 1832. Shows are on Sat., Jan. 31, and Sun., Feb. 1, at the Red Eye Theater, 2213 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis (free). More information <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/mara-queen-of-the-world-by-rebecca-nichloson-tickets-1978154386019\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.minnpost.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1933, composer Florence Price made history when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuted her music at the Chicago World\u2019s Fair. It marked the first time a major American orchestra performed the work of a Black female composer. But despite her prolific output and prominent collaborations, Price\u2019s influence faded following her death in 1953. Her work [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2245354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[316792],"class_list":["post-2245353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-arts-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MN-Operas-\u2018My-Name-is-Florence-offers-new-toe-tapping-music.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2245353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2245355,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2245353\/revisions\/2245355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2245354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2245353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2245353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2245353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}