Ulysses Kay’s opera Frederick Douglass provides a powerful an insight into the final years of abolitionist Frederick Douglass’s life, painting a powerful portrait of a larger-than-life figure grappling with his own legacy. Odyssey Opera-BMOP gave the New England premiere in a concert performance at Jordan Hall on Friday.

Frederick Douglass is a part of Odyssey Opera’s As Told By series, which, in partnership with Castle of our Skins, is in the process of presenting five operas by Black composers, culminating with the premiere of Johnathan Bailey Holland’s new opera, The Bridge, in 2026. It is in this interest to uplift Black composers that I offer some information on Ulysses Kay’s remarkable life and career, as well as the historical time in which he lived.

Born in Tucson, Arizona in 1917, Kay was exposed to the piano at a young age through his great uncle, Chicago bandleader Joseph Oliver. Introduced to composition during his college years, a meeting with prominent Black composer William Grant Still led him to dedicate himself to composition. Kay continued his musical education through several avenues, including studies at Tanglewood (and later at Yale) with Paul Hindemith, two Prix de Rome prizes, and a Fullbright scholarship. After a stint at Broadcast Music, Inc. as a consultant, he turned to teaching, winning a post at the Lehmann College of the City University of New York where he taught for two decades. Throughout his life, Kay was extremely prolific, composing over 140 works, including nearly 30 orchestral works, five operas, numerous chamber works, and scores for film and television. He also won awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Composers and American Broadcasting Company, and the American Composers Alliance.

As a beneficiary of changing attitudes towards Black composers in the post-World War II years, Kay carved a niche for himself within the Classical world, unencumbered by many of the expectations and stereotypes that had plagued previous generations of Black composers. According to Steph Davis, to whose excellent program note I owe much of Kay’s biography, Black composers of Kay’s generation “reaped many benefits from the long-fought struggle for greater opportunity: education, travel, publication, fellowships, and performance opportunities all became more accessible, and music critics and publishers had made some progress against notions of the color line…leading to wider appeal and greater economic stability.” Therefore, Kay’s prodigious talent and unique artistic voice was better recognized by the Classical establishment, freer from the pigeon-hole of “race music” than previous generations of Black composers.

Frederick Douglass, which premiered in 1991, was Kay’s final operatic effort. With a libretto by long-time collaborator Donald Dorr, the piece is a fictionalized depiction of the last few years of the abolitionist’s life. Taking place after his glory days as an activist and civil rights leader during the Civil War, the opera deals with the failure of his business venture, the Freedman’s Bank, his disastrous diplomatic mission to Haiti, and his controversial interracial marriage to Helen Douglass.

In his scenario, Dorr imagines that Douglass’s failures in business and diplomacy are orchestrated by an evil quintet consisting of fictional Senator Norton, merchant Busby, newsman Demler, Secretary Welles, and Officer Aubrey. Their plan, as expounded upon in the first scene, is to send Douglass to Haiti knowing his diplomatic mission will fail, and while away, to sabotage his bank, leading Douglass to be accused of embezzling money. The aim of this plan is to temper his power over the newly enfranchised freedmen and to ruin his reputation as a leader.

While this specific plan is an invention for Dorr’s libretto, the existence of conspiracies orchestrated by White government officials to destroy Black civil rights movements is far from fictional. It is this reality that Dorr taps into in his writing. According to Davis, “The Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 20^th century prompted the United States FBI to reaffirm its priority to (in the words of the Bureau’s archived documents), ‘prevent the rise of a [Black] messiah, prevent [Black] leaders from gaining respectability, and [prevent] the long-range growth of militant Black organizations’ in its counterintelligence program.” Therefore, rather being written through the historical lens of Douglass’s time, Frederick Douglass instead reflects Dorr and Kay’s thoughts on the legacy of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s: “Frederick Douglass is the canvas upon which Kay and Moore painted their ideas about race and justice.” It is this lens of interpretation I find most compelling for this opera. Rather than presenting rote historical fact about Douglass’s life, this work is instead an emotional retrospective on the life and legacy of Black leaders.

Kay’s tense, dramatic music fits well with the scenario laid out by Dorr, whose verbose, often wordy style is handled deftly through Kay’s refined text-setting ability. It is hard to fit Kay’s style into any one category. Though much of the music is squarely neo-romantic, there are moments of dense, modernistic textures, lyrical folk-melodies, and strict academic counterpoint. He also makes heavy use of the chorus, and there are several moments where the chorus sings a folk tune in the background while the main characters converse with each other in the foreground, to great dramatic effect. These moments evoke a more conservative Charles Ives, and their construction speaks to Kay’s virtuosity. Admittedly, in some areas, this density of line and texture creates a greying, flattening effect on the music. This is especially present in the first scene, where the bottom-heavy quintet of five men in combination with Kay’s shifting harmonies and high string melodies create a wash of sound that is hard to follow. However, this flattening is the exception, not the rule, and overall, Kay handles the orchestra expertly.

Gil Rose’s interpretation of the music is as detailed and nuanced as its construction. Kay’s dense contrapuntal lines and unorthodox harmonies speak readily in the orchestra, and the choir is well-prepared for the often-complex counterrhythms required of them. The balance between the singers and orchestra is perfect, and they are never subsumed by Kay’s dense orchestration. If anything, the brass occasionally overpowers the strings during loud instrumental moments, though I blame this on the fact that BMOP’s pared-down string section is pitted unfairly against the fully equipped brass complement. 

Turning to the singers, Kenneth Kellogg as Frederick Douglass characterizes Douglass as a pensive, almost mournful, specter of a man grappling with his own impact. Kellogg’s sensitive and piercing baritone fits the role exceptionally well, and his measured, cautious approach to the music adds to Douglass’s larger-than-life presence. Especially poignant is his performance of the aria A Coat of Many Colors, a musical and dramatic highlight of the work, in which Douglass imagines the future of the United States as a tapestry consisting of all the people who call it home.

Douglass’s second wife, Helen, is portrayed equally as sensitively by soprano Melody Moore. Her characterization as a supportive, stable, and strong partner for Douglass comes off effortlessly, and her exquisitely controlled soprano was the most evocative and varied in the cast. Her reconciliation with Frederick Douglass’s son, Howard Douglass (sung by Leroy Davis) in Act Three showed off her dramatic range. Their poignant on-stage chemistry and pitch-perfect performance made this my favorite scene of the night.

The most compelling dramatic character is Neal Ferreira’s Aubrey. His arc, starting with his role as a trusted confidant to the Douglass family, his dramatic turn to a backstabber, and his end as the primary scapegoat for the scheme, is very compelling. At times, this character veers into melodrama, especially when he begins to switch to French mid-sentence in the Third Act, or suddenly and inexplicably professes his love for Helen. However, Ferreira handles this character adeptly, embracing the melodramatic bent of this character to great effect. His vocal performance is also spot-on, effectively rounding out the strong trio of principal characters.

A final highlight I will mention was Dani Zhang’s performance as Agnes, a servant of the Douglass family. Her richly textured voice and bright-eyed portrayal of Agnes was a welcome reprieve from the heavy, baritone-dominated sound of the third act. Though her role was confined to a single scene, she is certainly a standout.

Ulysses Kay’s Frederick Douglass is a welcome revival by a highly skilled composer. Through BMOP and Odyssey Opera’s expert performance, Dorr’s libretto and Kay’s music reached new heights. Although not a factual biography of Douglass’s life, this opera provides an emotionally charged vision into the legacy of one of America’s most important abolitionists.

Owen Johnson is a Boston-based composer and pianist studying with Kati Agócs, currently enrolled in the rigorous Tufts/NEC dual-degree program. His music has been played by ensembles and performers throughout the Northeast, including by the New England Conservatory Philharmonia, the Pittsburgh Youth Concert Orchestra, and the Worcester Chamber Music Society.