For a program commemorating the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre (the one in which the area known as “Black Wall Street” was destroyed), the company commissioned composer Daniel Bernard Roumain to write a piece, including his own text, for mezzo Denyce Graves. Roumain submitted a work titled They Still Want to Kill Us, with the final line “God Bless America, God Damn America.” Company artistic director Tobias Picker asked that the word “damn” be changed, and when Roumain refused, Picker promised to pay the composer’s fee in full but removed his work from the program. (Unmentioned is the likely response of the Tulsa audience, and the company’s board, to the line.) – OperaWire
