GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Opera Grand Rapids presents a new performance this weekend called Stinney: An American Execution. It kicked off last night with a sold-out show and will resume tonight.

“We had so many people across town who happen to be black who said, ‘I can’t believe you’re all doing this here in Grand Rapids,'” production manager Austin McWilliams said.

the to throw consists of 20 adult opera singers, five children and 11 orchestral musicians who will together tell the story of George Stinney Jr.

Stinney, 14, was convicted in 1944 by an all-white jury of the rape and murder of two white girls in Alcolu, South Carolina.

He was sentenced to death by electric chair, becoming the youngest person of the 20th century to be legally executed in the United States. Stinney was exonerated in 2014 when a judge ruled his trial was unfair.

Stinney: An American Execution was composed by Frances Pollock in 2015, although this weekend’s performance is the world premiere and the first-ever professional operatic premiere in Opera Grand Rapids history.

“It’s a story of rape, murder and trauma told artistically. It’s really good music. It’s really good art,” McWilliams said. “It’s also worth acknowledging that stories like this are centered on injustice, that center
around injustice in particular are not often told in Grand Rapids.

Stinney will be played by Carter Dillet. He is a grade 7 student at Northview Public Schools.

“It’s been good to tell the story of his life and even that of other people who have been involved with him – his mother, his father, the people on the other side of the story,” he said. he declares.

Tickets can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.