The world premiere of “I Can’t Breathe” explores themes of grief, loss, love, identity and hope. The opera, inspired by and written in the wake of repeated instances of fatal police brutality, is not dramatizations of real-life incidents but instead the stories of six fictional characters from different walks of life, each named for a different archetype. The opera highlights how things like good manners, clean-cut appearance and compliance with orders too often can’t protect people of color from being treated as inherently dangerous. Six vignettes portray different facets of the African American experience and ultimately seek to answer the question: “How many more?”

The Knoxville world premiere is being produced by Marble City Opera in partnership with the Carpetbag Theatre, Inc. and the Beck Cultural Exchange Center. The production is led by an all-African American creative team comprising Carpetbag Theatre, Inc.’s Executive Artistic Director Jonathan Clark as stage director; Production Manager for Opera Huntsville and UTK Graduate School of Music alum Sierra Hammond as assistant director; Garrett McQueen, executive producer/host of the “TRILLOQUY” podcast and former WUOT host and KSO bassoonist as conductor; and Brandon Coffer, music director and rehearsal pianist.