Composer Sonenberg was so taken with the subject of Negro league baseball great Josh Gibson, that he devoted thirteen years of his life[4] to writing an opera about the legend.
Said to be a "hulking catcher," Gibson's remarkable skills at bat gained him the nickname: "The Black Babe Ruth".
Gibson not only hit more home runs than Babe Ruth, but he was a remarkable catcher, and is even said to have knocked a ball out of Yankee Stadium.
His untimely death at 35 in 1947 from a brain tumor, coupled with a tragic life — he never fully recovered after his wife died giving birth to twins and was a victim of alcoholism and drug abuse —, supplies the third element of the opera.
[1][9] On May 8, 2014, a "concert version" of the opera was performed with Steven Osgood as Music Director at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine.
The world premiere took place at Pittsburgh Opera on Saturday, April 29, 2017 with Antony Walker, conductor and Sam Helfrich, director.
Alfred Walker played Gibson, Jacqueline Echols his wife Helen, and Denyce Graves, Grace.
[8] However, its praise struck a home-run in the Opera Company's staged production and the composer's score: "Mr. Sonenberg is well suited to this eclectic mix" of musical genre ranging from "classical and jazz styles, ragtime, mariachi and big band swing."