Cincinnati Opera has just announced the release of the live audio recording of the world premiere production of “Blind Injustice,” the acclaimed new opera with music by Scott Davenport Richards and libretto by David Cote. Directed by Robin Guarino, the opera was recorded in the Wilks Studio at Cincinnati’s Music Hall in July 2019 and is being released on the Fanfare Cincinnati label.

The digital album is now available for purchase via Amazon Music, iTunes, and other digital music retailers, and for streaming via Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and other music streaming services.

The CD is available for pre-order at cincinnatiopera.org/bravo-shop.

The recording features the original cast, the Cincinnati Opera Chorus, members of YPCC, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra led by Cincinnati Pops Conductor John Morris Russell.

The opera explores the true stories of six innocent people who were convicted of crimes they did not commit, then ultimately freed by the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) at UC Law. A collaboration with the OIP and Cincinnati’s Young Professionals Choral Collective (YPCC), the opera is based on casework by the OIP and the book Blind Injustice by UC law professor and OIP Director Mark Godsey.

David Cote’s libretto draws upon 13 hours of interviews with the six exonerees: Rickey Jackson, Nancy Smith, Clarence Elkins, and the East Cleveland 3—Derrick Wheatt, Laurese Glover, and Eugene Johnson.

In this article, the gut-wrenching interview with Nancy Smith and powerful insights provided by director Robin Guarino offer some background behind the opera.

Recently, I caught up with Godsey and learned that there is a film coming out soon about Rickey Jackson, who was wrongly convicted and spent 39 years behind bars. Read that interview here.

This was my take on the July 2019 world premiere: The 90-minute work – part opera, part musical theater and part documentary –artfully illuminated the fact that injustices occur within the criminal justice system. But it also triumphed in telling the powerful human tragedies of real people in Ohio who have been caught in that web, and who somehow had the strength, dignity and grace to endure unspeakable horrors.

Lead support for the “Blind Injustice” recording was provided by Dianne and J. David Rosenberg.

The opera received its initial workshop through Opera Fusion: New Works, a partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) that supports the development of new operas. Opera Fusion: New Works is made possible through funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For more information, visit cincinnatiopera.org.