The Metropolitan Opera in New York this week will debut its first opera by a Black composer and the artist is none other than Terence Blanchard, the jazz trumpeter and who scored a parade of of Spike Lee FIlms.

The Met, the country’s largest opera company, reopens post-pandemic today with “Fire Shut Up In My Bones,” an opera by Blanchard that details the life of a young man who overcomes hardship and trauma. The libretto is written by filmmaker Kasi Lemmons of “Eve’s Bayou” fame.

The Met has performed some 300 titles in its 138 years, and none have been by a Black composer, according to The New York Times.