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Frederick Douglass is a full-length opera written and composed by Dorothy Rudd Moore. It is 180 minutes in duration and consists of three acts.[1] The world premiere took place in 1985 at City College of New York's Aaron Davis Hall.[2] The opera was commissioned by Opera Ebony.[3]
Moore expressed that she chose to write the opera because Frederick Douglass had always interested her.[4] She researched his life, wrote the libretto, the composition and the orchestration for the work, which took eight years to complete.[4] The opera is based on his biography, and is less of a dramatic work than a "series of musical meditations on love, death, religion, political oppression and eventual deliverance."[2]
The plot of the opera revolves around Douglass's second marriage, the Freedman's Savings Bank collapse and his mission to Haiti.[5] Moore's music contains elements of nineteenth-century melodies and Haitian folk music.[5] The opera has a mixed-race cast and includes a ballet.[4]
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