Devised with director Zack Winokur, it premiered to huge acclaim last year in New York. Tines reimagines Robeson’s signature anthems of protest, resilience, and reassurance. He both confronts the singer’s point zero and holds up a shattered mirror to the American dream, taking listeners on a trip from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the floor of a Moscow hotel room in an attempt to understand an icon through his vulnerability.
Indelibly associated with contemporary music, ‘Davóne Tines is changing what it means to be a classical singer’ says The New Yorker. He picked up a Grammy nomination for his recording of the title role in Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and created the role of Ned Peters in John Adams’ most recent opera Girls of the Golden West. Little wonder Time Magazine calls him ‘a next generation leader’.
Produced by Barbican Presents
Part of Davóne Tines Artist Spotlight
ROBESOИ was originally commissioned, developed, and produced by Little Island, Artistic Director Zack Winokur, Executive Director Laura Clement
With support from the Ford Foundation, ROBESOИ was funded by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and commission support from Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, and with deepest gratitude to Julie Mehretu, Kurt Chauviere, Shelly Hazel, Karen Molleson, the Steve Novick Charitable Gift Fund, Susan Baker, Noreen Buckfire, Paul Buttenweiser, Ellen Rosenau, Mary T Schneider, and Eli Wald.
