Margaret Garner

Overview

A documentary on the making of the opera 'Margaret Garner' (2005) created by Toni Morrison and Richard Danielpour. Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison was inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner in writing her novel Beloved. Garner was a slave in pre-Civil War America who escaped and killed her own daughter rather than see her return to slavery. Morrison later wrote the libretto for Margaret Garner, an opera composed by Richard Danielpour and commissioned by the Michigan Opera Theatre, the Cincinnati Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia in 2005. By recounting Garner's tale in conjunction with the story behind this "black opera" and the harsh Washington upbringing of its mezzo soprano, Denyce Graves, the film Margaret Garner re-examines a tragic historical moment while addressing racial issues that are still prevalent today.