Voice professor’s opera to be performed at Kennedy Center

The Washington, D.C., company IN Series will present an opera composed by UNC Charlotte Professor of Voice Brian Arreola at the Kennedy Center Saturday, April 9.

“¡Zavala-Zavala!,” with a libretto by Anna Deeny Morales, is inspired by the story of one family separated at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Arreola began developing the opera in 2017, motivated by the Trump administration’s immigration policies and widespread reports of children being separated at the border from their caregivers.

Arreola said, “In the ensuing controversy and protest, it struck me that opera’s capacity for giving voice to the stories and experiences of marginalized persons meant that an opera on this subject could be a powerful way to humanize the people our government was working so hard to dehumanize.”

Supported by a Faculty Research Grant, he commissioned Deeny Morales, who teaches at the Georgetown University Center for Latin American Studies.

“She got to work researching stories from the family separations, eventually settling on the case of Natividad Zavala and her grandson, Erik, who were separated after crossing the Rio Grande River,” Arreola said. “During the writing of the opera Erik was reunited with his mother with whom he will be attending the premiere,” said Arreola.

Read more on the College of Arts + Architecture website