Cincinnati Opera announced Good Bones, a new opera with music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels and a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames, as the third and final work in the company’s Black Opera Project. The opera will receive its world premiere in Summer 2028 at Cincinnati Music Hall.

Good Bones follows a young couple renovating a historic home in a historically Black neighborhood within a city undergoing rapid change, forcing them to reckon with the community’s past. The story is based on Ijames’s play of the same name, which premiered at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. in 2023 and had its New York premiere at The Public Theater in 2024. Timothy Douglas will direct, with Kelly Kuo conducting.

Abels is best known for scoring Jordan Peele’s films Get Out, Us, and Nope. His opera Omar, co-composed with Rhiannon Giddens, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Ijames received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Fat Ham, which earned a Tony nomination for Best Play.

The Black Opera Project, announced in 2024 with initial support from the Mellon Foundation, represents an approximately $6 million commitment across three commissioned world premieres. The first, Lalovavi, an Afrofuturist opera with music by Kevin Day and a libretto by Tifara Brown, premieres July 9 and 11, 2026. The second, John Lewis: Good Trouble, is scheduled for June 2027.

Source: https://www.cincinnatiopera.org/media-resources/2026/6/9/cincinnati-opera-announces-good-bones-completing-a-historic-trilogy-of-commissioned-world-premiere-operas-celebrating-the-black-american-experience