The gospel at Colonus

Sphocles’ Oedipus story as it’s never been told before in a gospel opera that’s an innovative blending of classical Greek tragedy with the rousing musical energy of the black church. The cast includes some of America’s top gospel groups: Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, J.J. Fareley and the Original Soul Sitters, the J.D. Steele Singers, and the Institutional Radio Choir performing an original score by composer Bob Telson with lyrics and text adapted from the Sophocles text by Lee Breuer and Bob Telson. Together, Breuer and Telson have harnessed the electrical energy and emotional power of the black gospel experience to bring the classics to a new audience while, at the black gospel experience to bring the classics to a new audience while, at the same time, creating a vehicle for the gospel performer to expand beyond the traditional gospel arena. Television enhances the emotional intensity of this moving work.