© 2026 ABC News

These discussions are particularly important to Lomeli, one of the only nonwhite people in a leadership position among the nation's top opera companies. From the start, he said, the aim was to have a diverse group represented on the TDO Network.

Lomeli also wants the network to help make the industry more inclusive. Episodes feature musicians and administrators opening up about the business, providing lessons and insights you might only otherwise get from an expensive conservatory or consultant.

\"PHOTO:
The Dallas Opera
PHOTO: The Dallas Opera's "Creative Conversations" program is hosted by David Lomeli, Dallas Opera director of artistic administration and executive producer of the TDO Network.
>

\"It's a business that doesn't have a lot of clues on how to do this,\" Lomeli said. \"We debunk myths, and a lot of people that are following us also are around the globe singers or people that are starting.\"

Since March, the network's content has had 11 million viewers, Lomeli said.

'Blue' takes on new life

\"When we originally programmed Blue for the 2020 Festival, we knew it was a phenomenal work of art with beautiful music, a stunning libretto, and moving, immediate performances,\" Jon Nakagawa, Lincoln Center's director of contemporary programming, said in a statement to ABC News. \"We also knew that the questions of racism and police brutality it explores were timely -- we did not know, of course, that the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and others would make it ever more urgent.\"

\"'Blue' unfortunately is about a subject matter that has no shelf life,\" Thompson said.

\"PHOTO:
Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
PHOTO: The world premiere of "Blue" is performed at The Glimmerglass Festival in New York in 2019.
>

With doors closed, Lincoln Center turned \"Blue\" into an hourlong radio documentary on WQXR, with excerpts from the 2019 premiere interspersed with creators Tesori and Thompson, along with musicologist Naomi André, discussing the opera.

\"It's sort of a trust-fall,\" Tesori told ABC News of handing the piece over to be converted into this medium.

\"The power of music, I think, is stronger, in a way, when you close your eyes and you listen. And I think people -- maybe they don't know it -- would welcome that more than watching another video,\" said Hanako Yamaguchi, director of music programming at Lincoln Center.

\"PHOTO:
Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival
PHOTO: The world premiere of "Blue" is performed at The Glimmerglass Festival in New York in 2019.
>

People turn to the arts as a way to understand the times, Tesori said, and as a composer, \"I think staying silent is me not being of service to the time.\"

Thompson hopes audiences walk away from \"Blue\" recognizing that \"the work is not over\" as the United States still has a \"canyon of racial divide.\"

\"When the curtain is over, when the radio is turned off, when the computer is shut down, and you've experienced 'Blue,'\" Thompson said, \"it's a reminder that we are all brothers and sisters, all together on this earth, and some of us really need to go a little extra and to prove, to show by your actions that you are not racist, that you do not hate Black people, that you do not wish Black people to be swept away from the earth or lynched publicly.\"

The \"Blue\" radio program is available on demand for about three more weeks here.

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