When baritone Markel Reed first stepped into the voice of James Baldwin in 2021, the world was already on edge.
The production was mounted during a pandemic. The nation was reckoning with the aftershocks of protests following the murder of George Floyd. Audiences were socially distanced, masked and searching for meaning.
Now Reed returns to the role he originated in composer Damien Sneed and librettist Karen Chilton’s acclaimed chamber opera “The Tongue and The Lash.” And he says the man he is today is not the same artist who first sang Baldwin’s words.
“I was still coming into an awareness of who I am as a Black man,” Reed said. “Now I feel like I have more agency — not just reacting to the world, but choosing how I show up in it.”
That evolution will be on display at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 19 at Graham Memorial Chapel on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, where the opera will anchor “Staging Baldwin and Buckley: Why Opera? Why Now?,” a program that pairs performance with dialogue about art, politics and civil discourse. The program is presented in collaboration with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, CRE2 and Washington University’s School of Music to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Belonging in Opera initiative.
The evening begins with a performance of the opera, followed by a panel discussion moderated by WashU professor Adrienne Davis and featuring composer Damien Sneed, opera scholar Naomi André, political historian Nicholas Buccola and ethnomusicologist Lauren Eldridge Stewart.
“The Tongue and The Lash” imagines a private conversation between Baldwin and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. immediately after their historic 1965 debate at the Cambridge Union Society.
The debate’s prompt — whether the American dream exists “at the expense of the American Negro” — remains one of the most widely discussed exchanges on race in modern history.
But Reed didn’t grow up studying Baldwin.
“I knew he was respected, but I didn’t really know his life or his work,” said the Charlotte, North Carolina native. “Digging into this piece forced me to learn things I hadn’t been taught — about Baldwin, about the debate, even about the Voting Rights Act.”
What began as research for a role became something deeper.
“I watched interviews. I studied his cadence, his gestures, the way he spoke,” Reed said. “But the more I learned, the more it started shaping how I think and how I move through the world.”
That transformation extended beyond the stage.
Reed now sees his career — whether singing opera, gospel or jazz — as a form of advocacy.
“I’ve always seen what I do as ministry,” he said. “Sacred or secular, it’s still ministry. It’s also protest.”
Revisiting the role after five years has been unexpectedly emotional.
Reed says time and life experience have changed both his voice and his understanding of Baldwin’s words.
“Five years ago, I was focused on making sure I sang everything correctly — hitting the notes, making sure the music landed the way the composer intended,” Reed said. “Now I’m hearing the text differently.”
That shift has led him to reshape how he delivers certain lines.
The opera moves between classical operatic passages and moments that lean toward blues and gospel — musical traditions deeply rooted in Reed’s upbringing.
Raised in church and surrounded by music from childhood, Reed says those influences are inseparable from his classical training.
“You’re getting the operatic sound, but you’re also getting the gospel and the soul,” he said. “That’s who I am. And honestly, Baldwin was the same way.”
Before becoming one of the 20th century’s most influential writers, Baldwin was a teenage preacher. Reed sees echoes of that background in Baldwin’s speeches and essays.
“He never stopped speaking like a preacher,” Reed said. “There’s a rhythm and conviction in his words.”
For Reed, the most powerful realization in revisiting the piece is how contemporary its themes feel.
The opera’s imagined argument about race, democracy and responsibility might be rooted in the 1960s, but Reed believes the questions remain painfully relevant.
“It would be easy for people to see this as just history,” he said. “But it’s not.”
He points to ongoing debates about voting rights, immigration and systemic inequality as evidence that many of the same struggles persist — even if they appear in different forms.
“Oppression doesn’t always look the same,” Reed said. “Sometimes it’s just packaged differently.”
That’s why he hopes audiences listen closely — not only to the music, but to the words.
“I want people to sit with the argument,” he said. “Where do you stand in it? And what responsibility do you have?”
After the performance, the evening will transition into a panel discussion exploring the intersection of opera, politics and Baldwin’s enduring influence.
The format mirrors the opera’s central idea: that art can be a catalyst for dialogue.
If Baldwin himself could see the piece, Reed imagines the writer might respond with a mix of humor and scrutiny.
“He was brilliant, but he also had a sharp sense of humor,” Reed said with a laugh. “He might say something like, ‘Well, you did your research.’”
More seriously, Reed hopes Baldwin would see the work not as a tribute, but as a continuation of the conversation he began decades ago.
“I don’t think the goal is to put him on a pedestal,” Reed said. “It’s to keep asking the questions he asked.”
And if the audience leaves the chapel thinking more deeply about those questions, Reed believes the performance will have done its job.
For Reed, stepping back into Baldwin’s voice is a reminder of how much one role — and one writer — can change a life.
“I’m not interested in being an untroubled artist,” he said. “The things we go through — the hurt, the struggle — those are the things that make the art meaningful.”
“Staging Baldwin and Buckley: Why Opera? Why Now?” featuring a performance of “The Tongue and The Lash” will take place at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. doors) on Thursday, March 19 at Washington University’s Graham Chapel. For more information, visit https://opera-stl.org/whats-on/belonging-in-opera. The program is free, but registration is strongly suggested. Visit https://form.jotform.com/260486101965156 to register.
Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.
