The Central Park Five

Music by Anthony Davis
Libretto by Richard Wesley

I have devoted myself to the creation of works that bring to light issues of political and social significance. Particularly my operas have addressed pivotal events and figures in American history with a focus on the issues of race and justice. – Anthony Davis

World Premiere

In 1980’s New York, five African American and Latino teenagers were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were unjustly convicted of a Central Park rape but exonerated through DNA evidence thirteen years later. Davis’ opera is a passionate story about an issue that still rocks America today.

The Central Park Five is an opera that remains talked about today even more than 30 years after the initial events occurred. 

A study by the National Registry of Exonerations found that black people convicted of murder or sexual assault are significantly more likely than their white counterparts to be later found innocent of the crimes. The study reviewed nearly 2,000 exonerations nationwide between 1989 and 2017. Innocent blacks also had to wait disproportionately longer for their names to be cleared than innocent whites.