From someone in Detroit comes the following:
There was great hope among Michigan Opera Theatre folks that Oprah would come to Detroit for “Margaret Garner,” and perhap even do a show from the opera house. She is, as you probably know, a big Toni Morrison fan and has featured four of her novels as part of her book club. Danielpour, by the way, would play very well on TV; he’s articulate, passionate, tells detailed stories with a point to them and is one of those guys that remembers dialogue from conversations 20 years ago. Anyway, the grapevine had it that Oprah was interested in coming but logistics didn’t work with a bunch of other stuff that was happening on her show, etc. Hard to know how reliable this information was, but my sense is that it was a real possibility.
I’m very glad to hear this. Might have been more effective if they’d tried to involve Oprah from the moment the opera was conceived, with its plans for productions by three companies. But that’s a thought for the future. For the moment, it’s good (if this information is reliable) that they tried to get Oprah involved at all.