Jazz-infused opera about champion boxer comes to O’Shaughnessy Center

The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD season continues Saturday with “Champion,” the operatic, jazz-infused, telling of the tragic life and redemption of boxer Emile Griffith.

Composed by Grammy Award-winning composer Terence Blanchard, a live on-screen performance of “Champion” will be held at 10:55 a.m. at the O’Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. The opera is sung in English with subtitles.

“Champion” is based on the true story of Griffith, a closeted gay “hatmaker-turned-prizefighter,” who rises “from obscurity to become world champion and, in one of the greatest tragedies of sports history, kills his homophobic archrival in the ring,” according to metopera.org.

In act one, on the island of St. Thomas in the 1950s, Griffith is a young man who dreams of reuniting with his estranged mother, Emelda, and becoming a hatmaker, singer, and baseball player. He moves to New York City and finds her, and though she doesn’t recognize him at first, she is overjoyed to reunite with one of the children she left behind. She brings him to meet Howie Albert, a hat manufacturer, hoping to find Griffith work. Albert sizes up Griffith and immediately recognizes his potential as a boxer. He offers to train him as a welterweight, and Griffith quickly develops his natural talent and physique, as his mother urges him to give up his other dreams.

Griffith — lonely and struggling with his identity — goes to a gay bar in Times Square and meets Kathy Hagen, the owner, who welcomes him into a world that both excites and frightens him. Griffith opens up to her about his childhood and the cruelty he experienced from a fundamentalist relative. As time progresses to 1962, Griffith is set to fight Benny “Kid” Paret in a high-profile match. When they face off at weigh-in, Paret taunts Griffith, calling him “maricon,” a Spanish slur for homosexual. Alone with Albert, Griffith tries to talk to him frankly about why this word hurt him so deeply, but Albert refuses to have the conversation, telling him that this is not something to be talked about in the boxing world. Alone, Griffith wrestles with his sense of manhood and self. As the fight begins and quickly escalates, Paret continues to mock him. Griffith delivers 17 blows in seven seconds, causing Paret to collapse, fall into a coma and later die.

In act two, as the 1960s continue, Griffith amasses wins, fame and notoriety, but internally, he is haunted by memories of Paret. Although Griffith is still grappling with his identity, he meets and marries a woman named Sadie Donastrog, against the advice of Albert and his mother. In the 1970s, however, his luck changes. He is on a losing streak and starting to show signs of “boxer’s brain,” or trauma-related dementia. Griffith rejects the support of his family and Albert and instead looks for comfort back at Hagen’s bar. Outside in the streets, he is taunted by a group of thugs who brutally beat him, exacerbating his brain injuries. As time moves to the present on Long Island, he relives the nightmare of the attack as Luis Rodrigo Griffith, his adopted son and caretaker, tries to remind him that all of that was in the past. They go to meet Paret’s son, Benny Paret Jr., so that Griffith can ask for forgiveness. Paret’s son learns that since that terrible evening in the ring, Griffith has struggled to find peace with what he has done. Back at home, the memories subside and Griffith can take life one day at a time.

Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green stars as the prizefighter Griffith. Bass-baritone Eric Owens stars as Griffith’s older self, haunted by the ghosts of his past. Soprano Latonia Moore is Emelda Griffith, the boxer’s estranged mother alongside mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as bar owner Kathy Hagen. Director James Robinson — whose productions of “Fire” and “Porgy and Bess” brought down the house — oversees staging, while Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads this stellar cast. Lawrence Brownlee hosts the presentation with exclusive behind-the-scenes access during the intermissions.

Tickets cost $20 for adults and $10 for students at the door. Cash or check will be accepted. Ten student scholarships are available by calling 862-5371.

Runtime is approximately three hours with a 30-minute intermission. Food and beverage will be available for purchase during the performance.

The production uses strobe light effects and contains adult themes, explicit language and physical violence.

The event is presented by the Whitefish Theatre Company and the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD presentations continue through June. For more information visit www.whitefishtheatreco.org.