History was made last night by New York’s Metropolitan Opera when it opened the new season with “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” the first work by a Black composer in the Met’s 138-year history.

Jazz composer Terence Blanchard crafted a contemporary story of an African American child who survives poverty, abuse and a system stacked against him.

He claimed mixed emotions over the honour and the fact that no one, equally qualified, had been first.

About 4,000 people, many in evening dresses and black tie, attended the Met’s first operatic performance in-house since the pandemic shut it down 18 months ago.