Charlie Parker’s Yardbird

Daniel Schnyder & Bridgette A. Wimberly • Apr. 10, 13, 16, 18, 20, 22, 2021

While the body of the legendary tormented saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker lies unidentified in a New York City morgue, his ghost travels back to Birdland, the famed New York City jazz club named after him. As he struggles to complete his final masterpiece, the great bebop innovator revisits the demons, inspirations, and women who have both fueled and hindered his creative genius.

With the aid of his strong mother Addie, three of his four wives, and his partner in the bebop jazz revolution, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie will struggle to calm his demons and write his new masterpiece before his body is identified in the morgue and this gig is up forever. Can he do it, or will the demons of his past rear their ugly heads?

Join us on a freeform expedition into the mind, heart, and personal purgatory of the man they called Yardbird.

This production is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Antony Walker conducts. Tomé Cousin directs.

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Charlie Parker (Martin Bakari) and Dizzy Gillespie (Yazid Gray). Photo by David Bachman

Charlie Parker’s (Martin Bakari) mom Addie (Jasmine Muhammad) tells him he can’t stay in Kansas City. Photo by David Bachman

Chan (Véronique Filloux) and Charlie Parker (Martin Bakari) fall in love. Photo by David Bachman

Charlie Parker (Martin Bakari) tries to show his wife Chan (Véronique Filloux) his final composition, but it’s too late. Photo by David Bachman

Addie Parker (Jasmine Muhammad). Photo by David Bachman

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Synposis

As the opera begins, Charlie Parker's spirit finds itself at Birdland, the jazz club named after him. He has just died; his body is still at the segregated hotel suite of Nica de Koenigswarter. Panicking about the scandal that will ensue when his body is found in her rooms, Nica finds his spirit at Birdland. She wants Chan, Charlie's wife, to identify his body; but Charlie begs Nica not to tell Chan where he is, to keep his secret for a while, until he has time to compose a masterpiece.

Looking for inspiration, Charlie remembers growing up in Kansas City. His neighbors complain about all the noise he makes, learning to play saxophone—particularly the tritone, "the Devil's interval"—while his mother, Addie, worries about his lifestyle in the age of Jim Crow laws. Rebecca, Charlie's first wife, joins Addie in a lament about the challenges of being a wife and mother to black males in the United States. Hoping to save his life, Addie tells Charlie he must leave Kansas City. He promises to make her proud one day, and asks her to take care of his wife and son.

Charlie's third wife, Doris, tries to help him find peace; but there are still unanswered questions. Dizzy Gillespie, on the other hand, brings Charlie inspiration, and together the two musicians triumph as Bebop is born.

Charlie then remembers how he met Chan and went off to conquer California with Dizzy, despite his heroin addiction. Meanwhile, Addie remembers her pride upon hearing Charlie play on the radio.

In California, Charlie hears from Chan that their two-year old daughter, Pree, is dead. Charlie breaks down and ends up in Camarillo State Hospital. Music facilitates his recovery.

By now Charlie's body has been discovered. Addie wants him buried in Kansas City, but Chan wants to bury him in New York. Doris and Rebecca join the argument over where Charlie is to be buried while the world sings, "Bird lives!"

Charlie realizes that playing the saxophone was his life's work, his masterpiece. He makes peace with himself, frees his soul, and sings lines from Paul Laurence Dunbar's classic poem, "Sympathy."

_{Adapted from Opera Philadelphia and Wikipedia}

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