Charlie Parker's Yardbird at Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD, with a libretto by poet and playwright Bridgette A. Wimberly, receives its World Premiere, in the Aurora Series for Chamber Opera at the Perelman Theater, capping Opera Philadelphia’s 40th Anniversary Season.

In that empty twilight between life and death, tortured jazz soloist Charlie Parker composes his final masterpiece, revisiting the inspirations, demons, and women who fueled his creative genius. Opera Philadelphia presents the World Premiere of this freeform expedition into the mind, heart, and personal purgatory of the bebop great. Lawrence Brownlee stars as the legendary saxophonist—a role crafted around the effortless, improvisational style that makes him one of music’s most sought after tenors. Soprano Angela Brown mesmerizes as his mother, Addie Parker, and Will Liverman debuts as jazz icon Dizzy Gillespie. Set in the famed NYC jazz club Birdland, the opera is as uncompromising in its artistic vision as the “Yardbird” himself....

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Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD, with a libretto by poet and playwright Bridgette A. Wimberly, receives its World Premiere, in the Aurora Series for Chamber Opera at the Perelman Theater, capping Opera Philadelphia’s 40th Anniversary Season.

In that empty twilight between life and death, tortured jazz soloist Charlie Parker composes his final masterpiece, revisiting the inspirations, demons, and women who fueled his creative genius. Opera Philadelphia presents the World Premiere of this freeform expedition into the mind, heart, and personal purgatory of the bebop great. Lawrence Brownlee stars as the legendary saxophonist—a role crafted around the effortless, improvisational style that makes him one of music’s most sought after tenors. Soprano Angela Brown mesmerizes as his mother, Addie Parker, and Will Liverman debuts as jazz icon Dizzy Gillespie. Set in the famed NYC jazz club Birdland, the opera is as uncompromising in its artistic vision as the “Yardbird” himself.

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