Cécile McLorin Salvant, Ogresse at The Kennedy Center

“She falls in love. She eats the guy. She dies.”

Jazz meets theater in Ogresse, a sumptuous journey of myth and song by award-winning vocalist, composer, and visual artist Cécile McLorin Salvant. Playful yet poignant, this wickedly delicious, darkly humorous fairy tale about a ravenous, lovesick monster explores themes of power, race, gender, and obsession.

The titular “big black beast” and her forest home are conjured with striking, large-scale projected imagery and a quirky, genre-defying score, composed and performed by Salvant with chamber orchestra.