Belonging in Opera
Belonging in Opera
In 2021, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, in partnership with WashU’s Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2) and Department of Music, began a multi-year exploration of race and opera.
To commemorate the five-year anniversary of Belonging in Opera, OTSL, CRE2, and WashU’s Department of Music will host a special slate of activities in Spring 2026 surrounding a performance of the opera The Tongue and The Lash. The opera imagines a private conversation between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr., following the historic 1965 Cambridge Union debate over the motion “Is the American Dream at the Expense of the American Negro?” Baldwin, arguing the affirmative, won.
Though their debate took place over sixty years ago, its themes remain strikingly relevant today.
The 2026 activities include:
- Staging James Baldwin and William F. Buckley: Belonging in Opera exhibition
- Baldwin-Buckley Debate Screening
- Belonging in Opera, Keynote Address from Dr. Naomi André, WashU Distinguished Visiting Scholar
- Staging Baldwin and Buckley: Why Opera? Why Now?, a performance of The Tongue and The Lash and a round-table discussion
Special thanks to our supporting partners
Event information
February 7 – April 12, 2026
Staging James Baldwin and William F. Buckley: Belonging in Opera exhibition
Wednesday, March 18, 12:00pm
Baldwin-Buckley Debate Screening
Wednesday, March 18, 4:30pm
Belonging in Opera, Keynote Address from Dr. Naomi André
Thursday, March 19, 7:00pm
2026 Belonging in Opera Event Schedule
Staging James Baldwin and William F. Buckley: Belonging in Opera Exhibition
February 7 – April 12, 2025
John M. Olin Library, Level 1, Kagan Grand Stair
A special exhibition celebrating the Belonging in Opera Series and James Baldwin’s work will be up for the duration of the Spring 2026 semester at WashU’s Olin Library. The Belonging in Opera exhibition features archival items from the world premiere of The Tongue and The Lash, as well as historical materials related to James Baldwin and William F. Buckley from the Olin, Gaylord, and St. Louis Public Libraries.
Baldwin-Buckley Debate Screening
Wednesday, March 18, 12:00pm
Umrath Lounge, Washington University in St. Louis
A screening of the historic footage of the debate hosted by WashU and The James Baldwin Review. A discussion with Nicholas Buccola, Ph.D., author of The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America, will follow.
Belonging in Opera, Keynote Address from Dr. Naomi André, WashU Distinguished Visiting Scholar
Wednesday, March 18, 4:30pm
Umrath Lounge, Washington University in St. Louis
A Keynote Address on race and opera by Dr. Naomi André, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor in Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. André’s research focuses on opera and issues surrounding gender, voice, and race. Her publications include topics on Italian opera, Schoenberg, women composers, and teaching opera in prisons. Her books, including, Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera (2006) and Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (2018), focus on opera from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and explore constructions of gender, race and identity in the United States, Europe, and South Africa. She has been involved with co-edited collections: Blackness in Opera (2012), African Performance Arts and Political Acts (2021), and The Music of Mzilikazi Khumalo: Language, Culture, and Song in South Africa (2024) focuses on how performance and the arts shape the narratives of cultural history and politics on global stages. Additional projects include being on the Executive Editorial Boards for two new music journals, Black Music, in Theory (University of Michigan Press) and the Journal of Black Opera & Music Theatre (Bern Open Publishing, Switzerland).
Staging Baldwin and Buckley: Why Opera? Why Now?, a performance of The Tongue and The Lash and a round-table discussion
Thursday, March 19, 7:00pm,
Graham Memorial Chapel, Washington University in St. Louis
The centerpiece of the 2026 celebration is a performance of the chamber opera The Tongue and The Lash by composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton, commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2021. The Tongue and The Lash imagines the conversation between James Baldwin and William Buckley immediately following the 1965 debate. In the opera, the two men continue to spar over the meaning of racial freedom in America, maintaining both their dignity and convictions. This opera invites us to reflect on whether, as a nation still grappling with deep divisions, we can preserve the art of civil discourse.
A round-table discussion will immediately follow the performance, moderated by Professor Adrienne Davis, William M. Van Cleve Professor of Law and Professor of Organizational and Behavioral and Leadership, Olin Business School, WashU. The discussion will feature scholars with expertise in opera and the writings of James Baldwin including composer Damien Sneed, distinguished visiting scholar Dr. Naomi André; Nicholas Buccola, Ph.D., Dr. Jules K. Whitehill Professor of Humanism and Ethics, Department of Government, Claremont McKenna College; and Lauren Eldridge Stewart, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, WashU.
Cast & Creative Team
Movement Consultant: Olivia Gacka
Music Director/Pianist: Jonathan Heaney
Stage Manager: Emma Fletcher
James Baldwin: Markel Reed
William F. Buckley, Jr.: Andrew Morstein
Adjudicator: Robert Mellon
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is funded in part by the Missouri Arts Council and the Regional Arts Commission. Opera Theatre gratefully acknowledges Webster University for its sustaining partnership.
Opera Theatre affirms its ADA compliance and is proud to promote diversity and inclusion in all activities.