The most widely performed new opera of the last two decades, Dead Man Walking is adapted from the groundbreaking memoir by Sister Helen Prejean. It concerns her ministry to condemned murderers on death row, and in bringing this powerful story to the operatic stage, composer Jake Heggie created a score that recalls Sister Helen’s prose and her advocacy style: direct, unaffected, and unflinchingly honest—but not without a deep understanding of the heart and humanity inside each one of us.

Anthony Davis’s first opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X dramatizes the life of the civil rights icon, but rather than explain, let alone beatify, its subject, the work is primarily focused on his personal transformation. It is also the journey of his audience and how they have perceived him, from victim of poverty to leader-agitator to martyr. Neither the music nor the libretto seeks to console nor superficially inspire, but always to engage and intrigue.

Fluidity—of time, place, emotion, and even of identity—is at the core of Florencia en el Amazonas. It is ostensibly the tale of passengers traveling down the Amazon River aboard the steamship El Dorado; the real drama, though, lies in the psychological journeys that each character undertakes. The libretto, by Marcela Fuentes-Berain, is an original story rich in allusion to other tales that skirt the border between drama and fantasy. Fuentes-Berain was a student of Gabriel García Márquez, whose style of magical informs the plot.