teacher in new orleans roger dickinson, howard swanson, there s a number of great african-american composers who were definitely more qualified than me to have a piece premiered at the metropolitan opera. i feel like i m standing on strong shoulders, that s why i made sure this could be the strongest show possible because i don t want to let those souls and spirits down. there s a lot riding on this in terms of our history. one of the beautiful things about this project is that everyone, and, i mean, everyone in this production has taken ownership of this piece. it s almost like it doesn t belong to casey and myself anymore. you know, and that s been a beautiful thing to witness because there s some extremely talented young people that are going to grace the stage at the metropolitan opera on monday.