Davone Tines: Singer + Creator
Davone was set on the path to become a musician since his youth, and was accepted into Harvard and Juilliard to study. However, Davone is not an ordinary opera singer. It’s easy to say Davone is a specialist with a singular identity as a bass-baritone singer, but he’s much more than that title.
As American Theatre director Peter Sellars assessed about Davone, “nobody, ever, ever forgets that astonishing moment when there is someone new on the scene and we feel in a moment they are not just entering the scene, but can be part of shaping it” (LA Times).
Davone is indeed shaping the landscape of opera by confronting racism with his music (TME YouTube). In fact, he was the title lead of Langston Hughes’ The Black Crown, which received critical acclaim. because as a music theater experience it fused “vaudeville, gospel, opera, jazz, and spirituals to bring Langston Hughes’ verse to life onstage and animate a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression” (American Repertory Theater).
Davone uses his opera talent to bring racism and cultural issues to life and provide audiences with new experiences of contraversial content. In an interview, Davone explained opera is a flexible method that allows him to portray vivid storytelling:
Opera kind of gives you a four dimensional experience. I sing it to you, I’m going to present it to you physically, visually and there is music wrapped around all of those words. So there is a huge ‘Take This In’ force. As opposed to reading, where you have your own interpretation of things, or when somebody is giving you a lecture, opera creates an immediate draw for people to pay attention, to be fully emerged and engaged. This leads to a meaningful and productive exchange.