The Central Park Five | Detroit Opera | May 10-18, 2025

May 10 - 18, 2025

The Central Park Five

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Despite racial injustice, resilience and redemption emerge as the five men fight for freedom.

Anthony Davis, composer of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Music for this true story adaptation of systemic discrimination. This gripping opera follows the wrongful convictions of five African American and Latino teenagers in the assault of a white female jogger in Central Park.

Despite racial injustice, resilience and redemption emerge as the five men fight for freedom.


The Central Park Five opera explores racial injustice, police brutality, coerced confessions, sexual violence, and wrongful imprisonment. The portrayal of these real-life events and the use of explicit racist language may be distressing. Viewer discretion is advised. Suggested for audiences of 16+.

  • Music: Anthony Davis
  • Libretto: Richard Wesley
  • Director: Nataki Garrett
  • Conductor: Anthony Parnther
  • Sung in English with English subtitles

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Support for Nataki Garrett

Nataki Garrett is partially supported by OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors, generously funded by the Marineau Family Foundation.