Love of the Game: UK Opera Theatre workshops a contemporary opera taking place on a basketball court

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For years, Grethe Holby – a New York-based producer and director who specializes in opera and contemporary musical performance – had been fostering an idea for a production that wasn’t getting much traction: a contemporary opera that takes place on a basketball court.

“I would talk to opera people about this idea, and they would all roll their eyes,” said Holby, whose vision was inspired in part by her teenage sons’ love of the game. Holby continued to push forward with the idea, and eventually, she was able to enlist the involvement of director Torrie Allen, the former director of Anchorage Opera and one of few African Americans to have directed a professional opera company.

And when the concept came up during a National Arts Council review panel, where Allen and other panelists were sharing news of current projects, fellow panelist Everett McCorvey nearly fell out of his chair.

“I basically stopped the meeting,” remembers McCorvey, director of the University of Kentucky’s Opera Theatre. “I was like wait, stop – you’re talking about a basketball opera and you’re not involving the basketball mecca of the universe, the University of Kentucky?”

A few months later, McCorvey tracked down Holby in New York City and explained why the project should be brought to Lexington.

“It was so wonderful to find somebody who understood the power of what this can be,” said Holby, whose organization, Ardea Arts, works to connect diverse audiences with the opera experience through original works. In February 2015, McCorvey invited Holby and her team to Lexington and Rupp Arena to experience the energy of a UK basketball game.

“I said if they were going to write a basketball opera, they needed to experience basketball at the highest level,” explained McCorvey. He now serves as the musical director of “Bounce,” which is currently being workshopped at the University of Kentucky.

Of course, McCorvey and the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre had more to offer the basketball opera than proximity to Rupp Arena. Like Yale Repertory Theatre, which is famous as a longtime incubator for works that end up on Broadway, UK Opera Theatre is becoming known for championing new American operas. The program had been a launching pad for four or five other new works before beginning on “Bounce,” and last month, the UK College of Fine Arts (via UK Opera Theatre) was granted permission to develop and present the upcoming workshop premiere of “The Promised Land,” an original rock opera based on the music and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. The college is currently in the process of casting for that workshop, which it hopes will attract the attention of Broadway producers (and even The Boss himself).

According to McCorvey, incorporating new works into their repertoire is a vital part of growing the art form.

“We can’t depend on the 18th- and 19th-century warhorses – we need some 20th- and 21st-century warhorses as well,” he said. “We have to pay attention to what the young people are doing. We have to come to where they are.”

While the workshopping process is typically out of the public’s field of vision, it’s an essential part of developing new plays, musicals and operas. Mounting each element of the production, from characters and plot to staging and music, with real actors and singers helps reveal what works and what needs revising. Sometimes, certain song passages are amended; sometimes entire endings are changed.

UK Opera Theatre’s increasing role as a workshopping hub also creates unparalleled opportunities for students in the UK opera program.

“These roles are sort of built around particular students from the University of Kentucky,” said McCorvey. “To anybody who does this opera from now on, the student can say, ‘I built that role.’”

Like the high school game itself, “Bounce: The Basketball Opera” takes place on an actual basketball court and unfolds over four quarters. Featuring a libretto – the text used in an extended musical work – written by poet and children’s book author Charles R. Smith, the plot is loosely based on the mythological Greek tale of the flight of Icarus, centering on a gifted and ambitious young basketball player nicknamed “Flight” and a jealous teammate nicknamed “Future” who threatens to clip his wings. The production touches on jealousy and youth violence, and according to Holby, it ultimately aims to address the question “how do you pick yourself up and move on after a tragedy?”

With a storyline featuring cheerleaders at halftime and singers who play basketball during the performance, one of the production’s biggest challenges has been to find performers who can not only sing opera, but also play basketball. But in opera music comes first – a priority agreed upon by both McCorvey and Glen Roven, the Emmy-winning composer tasked with helping create the music for “Bounce.” With songs that incorporate elements of opera, hip hop and electronic dance music (EDM), “Bounce” certainly keeps that aspect dynamic – and the workshopping process has helped focus on getting it just right.

“The reality is if it’s not a good melody or it’s difficult to sing, it won’t be performed again,” explained McCorvey. “And so the idea is to create something that the audience will enjoy hearing and the singer will enjoy singing.”

On a recent visit to Lexington, Roven discovered a total absence of skepticism about the project.

“Every time I take a Lyft or an Uber, they ask me what I’m doing here,” he said during that visit. “I tell them and they say, ‘Oh my God, a basketball opera, that sounds fantastic!’”

“I’m getting 100 percent approval rating,” he added with a laugh.

UK Opera Theatre, in collaboration with Ardea Arts, plans to host a workshop presentation of “Bounce: The Basketball Opera” on April 15. The performance is slated for world premiere within the next year or so, though McCorvey notes that the premiere won’t take place until the production is fully ready, and that timetable can be difficult to predict.

For more information on the production, visit www.ardeaarts.com/bounce-2.

“BOUNCE: The Basketball Opera” will bring opera-theatre to basketball courts in inner cities and throughout rural America, from Alaskan native villages to a city park at Coney Island.

Featuring music by Glen Roven and Tomas Dunker, a story and libretto by Charles R. Smith Jr., a concept and direction by Grethe Holby, “Bounce” is a project of Ardea Arts Family Opera Initiative and is currently being workshopped at the University of Kentucky under the musical direction of Everett McCorvey.

UK Opera Theatre and Ardea Arts will present a debut workshop of the production at 7:30 p.m. on April 15 at the Schneider Vocal Arts Center, 412 Rose St. 2nd Floor Studio. While it won’t be a finished product, the public is invited to attend the workshop presentation and give feedback to the work-in-progress. sEating is limited and attendees are encouraged to arrive early. cc

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