Fire Shut Up in My Bones

Charles Blow has made it out of his small Louisiana hometown and is in college working toward his future when he learns that a figure from his past has blown back into town. Just like that, Charles is in his car and driving toward home so he can settle things once and for all. Will he abandon everything he's worked for to return to that grim town he finally escaped? The new opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones takes its name and subject matter from a memoir by New York Times writer Charles Blow, and features music by jazz musician Terence Blanchard and a book by Eve's Bayou screenwriter Kasi Lemmons. Opera Theatre St. Louis presents Fire Shut Up in My Bones at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at the Loretto Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; www.opera-stl.org). Tickets are $29 to $129, and the show is performed five more times in repertory through June 29.