Gordon Hawkins is a celebrated opera singer and professor in Arizona State University's School of Music, Dance and Theatre, and he’s used to singing parts that were composed centuries ago.
However, his latest opera is a little different. “Proximity” is a trio of opera’s commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The libretto was written by renowned playwright Anna Deveare Smith and the three operas explore topics that feel a little closer to home these days — technology, climate change and gun violence.
Hawkins plays Preacher Man in the new opera and told The Show that this is exactly where opera needs to go in a post-pandemic world.
