The Des Moines Metro Opera has named Dr. Naomi André as their Scholar-in-Residence for the 2022 Festival Season. André is a professor in Women’s Studies, the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, and the Residential College Arts and Ideas in the Humanities Program at the University of Michigan, and is the author of Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early-Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera and co editor of Blackness in Opera.

General and Artistic Director Michael Egel tells KNIA News he can’t wait for the public to be able to witness Porgy and Bess, and is looking forward to the cast experiencing Indianola.

The residency is made possible through a Humanities Iowa grant from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.