“Futurists.” That’s how Scott and Alisha Patterson describe themselves and their artistic collective, Afro House, which launched in Baltimore in 2013.

For the past dozen years, the married creative partners—he’s a classically trained pianist and she’s a professional arts administrator—have been expanding their horizons. From hosting collaborative in-home concerts and a “100 Year Symposium” conversation series to hatching their more recent, multi-sensory, sci-fi space operas, they’ve become an embodiment of the city art scene’s DIY ethos.

Exhibit A: Cloud Nebula, their latest intergalactic odyssey, presented earlier this year at The Voxel. The three-act work fuses music, dance, theater, and film into a cosmic world of love, hope, and Black liberation. Set in a fantastical, futuristic universe, it chronicles the journey of Jakub, a celestial star in human form, as she guides survivors of her dying planet to the luminous oasis of the Cloud Nebula. Along the way, in an all-too-relatable plot line, she’s confronted by Osei, an artificial dark sun which aims to gain power by swallowing their light.

But for those who missed the shows, fear not. Recorded live, the euphoric, funk-infused soundtrack is now available as Afro House’s debut album, and they’ll be performing at Keystone Korner on November 16. Best of all, the Pattersons are only just beginning their explorations, to infinity and beyond.

Scott, you’re a classically trained pianist, while Alisha comes from a background in arts administration. Where does this desire for experimentation come from within you?

SP: I’m often confused about why there is a separation between experimentation and quote-unquote classical music. When I was in school, we studied Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Bach. They’re all innovators. But I grew up listening to and playing all different types of music. My father is a jazz bassist. We love funk. We grew up in church with gospel music. So there’s a hunger for many different sounds in me … At Afro House, we’re futurists. We’re space explorers. We want to boldly go where no one has gone before. I know that’s cheesy, but that’s really us. Musically, we’re always trying to search.

AP: And push boundaries. And not just for pushing boundaries’ sake. But driven by curiosity and always questioning the [status quo].

SP: When you stay too hard in tradition, it can become a mausoleum of what happened before. We’re very much interested in: What’s it going to look like, 100 years from now? I think that’s what it is to be human—to be able to imagine. And if you have just enough power to imagine despair, I choose hope.

Why opera?

SP: Opera can be really big. For us, we are called Afro House. We create futuristic stories about Black people. And one of the things I love about opera is that it lends itself to very gigantic ideas. And it can place Black people in these epic stories, in a way I did not see growing up.

When I was going to school in New York, I went to see Porgy and Bess [which depicts the lives of African Americans in the 1920s] at Lincoln Center. That’s one of the operas I grew up with; my father used to play the music, and the album by Miles Davis and Gil Evans. They were these really big scores, and I just loved it. I wished there was more like it. And I wanted to do that for Black people.

When did science fiction first enter your orbit?

SP: I was eight years old. My aunt took me to see Return of the Jedi. It had just come out in theaters. And it blew my mind. I fell in love with being able to go to another world. For me, film has been the biggest influence. Star Wars. Star Trek. Dune. I love those big space odysseys. And when I started thinking about, well, how can I create stories that are on that scale? Opera stuck out the most as a vehicle.

AP: We’re also raising two Black boys. So we’re thinking about, what role can we play in shaping how they see themselves in the world? How can we help to inform their sense of self by actually producing art that centers Blackness in these vast situations? And us in the future, what could that look like?

And your sons are featured in this performance and on the album—Judah, 14, plays guitar, and Ra, 11, plays saxophone. What was it like creating this together?

AP: It’s been very special to have these experiences with them. This is what we can offer them as parents, whether or not they decide to go into the arts. Like, they now know that it’s possible to do something really big that you’ve never done before. And that a community of people will come together and support that vision. I didn’t see enough of that growing up. And of course, it’s not a big deal to them, they could really care less, but…

SP: We’re old fogies and very uncool. [Laughs.]

Tell us, what is Cloud Nebula?

SP: For me, as a creator, a storyteller, it is the future, and a metaphor. The characters are us, and the task is, how do we get to that future that we know is bright?

AP: And it’s not dystopian. It’s a vibrant story of hope. The album is the same way. We want people to put it on and just be able to be nourished and filled with hope.

What inspired the album?

SP: In creating this score, we were thinking about the experience we wanted to give to people, and I wanted to give as much of myself as I can, and be a complete artist and human being. I love orchestral music, but I also like funk, rock, jazz, and soul. I’m very much influenced by Earth Wind & Fire, and one of my favorite things to listen to is their live albums. … We want to do a vinyl eventually. So that you can put that needle on and just let go.

On a chilly evening last spring, the auditorium of Stephens Hall Theatre at Towson University was packed with opera patrons who had scored a ticket for Opera Baltimore’s nearly sold-out performance of Verdi’s beautifully tragic La Traviata, composed in 1853. Translated as “the fallen woman,” it tells the story of Violetta—in today’s parlance she might be described as part party girl, part influencer, and part high-class sex worker—who catches the eye of the wealthy Alfredo. This is opera, so theirs is not an easy romance, as class and other entanglements thwart their happily-ever-after, including—spoiler alert—her battle with tuberculosis, which had no cure in Verdi’s day.

The graceful soprano Lindsay Ohse, whose credits include critically acclaimed performances with major companies like the Metropolitan Opera (Met), was a charming lead, and the performance garnered rave reviews. Yet many Baltimoreans had no idea the performance had even taken place. Their exposure to opera may be limited to Bugs Bunny singing “Kill the Wabbit!” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries,” from Richard Wagner’s The Ring Cycle opera trilogy.

“It seems that many people imagine opera to be people in horns shouting at one another,” explains James Harp, who currently serves as artistic director for Maryland Opera (the second area opera company in addition to Opera Baltimore) and has been a leader in the city’s opera scene for nearly four decades.

“But the stories of opera are more relevant than people could possibly imagine,” he continues. “They tell the highs and lows of the human experience, set to the greatest music of all time. Opera is the culmination of the arts: It brings together the visual, the musical, the vocal, and the dramatic to create this incredible work of art that really takes us to a level that is so profoundly personal and reaches our very core.”

Baltimoreans may not be aware that opera has thrived in the city for nearly three centuries, starting in the 1700s. Later, it was ground zero for the performance of perhaps the country’s first homegrown opera that rose to European standards, when Arthur Clifton’s The Enterprise premiered here in 1822.

“Arthur Clifton was an English composer who immigrated to Baltimore and was central in the theatrical scene here,” says Dr. Aaron Ziegel, associate professor of music history and culture at Towson University and scholar-in-residence with Opera Baltimore. “This was the first operatic thing to be composed and premiered in Baltimore during the Colonial Era. The local press was really excited and there was a feeling that, ‘We’ve done it for the first time! A real, live, American-produced opera here in our city, composed by somebody here in our city, cast with actors from here in our city.’”

The years following the Civil War became known as the “golden age of opera.” A new theater district popped up around Howard Street with the construction of the Concordia Opera House, Ford’s Grand Opera House—the same Ford who owned the D.C. theater where Lincoln was assassinated—the Academy of Music, and The Music Hall. These venues were constructed to mimic the grand style of European opera houses, with a substantial main floor, tiered balconies, and stages that would fit the scenery and full choruses the large-scale productions demanded.

Unfortunately, none of these venues survive today except one: The Music Hall, now known as the Lyric. This majestic space, modeled after Amsterdam’s famous Concertgebouw, was purchased by Met Opera board chair and influential banker Otto Kahn in 1909. Kahn renamed it the Lyric Theater, securing it as a venue for Met performances. As a Met presenter, the Lyric would host major opera stars throughout the early part of the 20th century.

The quality of operas in Charm City and the popularity of the genre at the time gave rise to a sizable community of opera boosters in Baltimore. Eugene Martinet, a celebrated singer and director, founded the Baltimore Civic Opera Company in 1932, which largely featured local, amateur singers. That all changed when the company reorganized after his death and superstar diva Rosa Ponselle helmed the company as artistic director from roughly 1950 to 1979. Her star power attracted leading singers and professionalized the company, which dropped “civic” from its name entirely in 1970 to become the Baltimore Opera Company.

Baltimore Opera Company enjoyed many decades of high quality opera performances. Luminaries who later became household names came here, including Beverly Sills, Birgit Nilsson, Plácido Domingo, and Anna Moffo. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which shared the Lyric as its home venue until the 1982 opening of the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, served as the pit orchestra from the 1950s until the mid-1980s, when Baltimore Opera Company formed its own orchestra.

But like most arts institutions, Baltimore Opera Company faced its share of financial challenges. By the early 2000s, it was carrying significant debt. Operas are notoriously expensive to produce; revenue from ticket sales covers less than half of the cost of each production. The rest must be funded through public and private donations and an endowment draw. As a result, the annual budget can easily be blown off course. The 2007-2009 recession was the gust of wind that took down Baltimore Opera Company, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008 and canceled its remaining two productions without issuing refunds to ticket holders.

James Harp, who served as Baltimore Opera Company’s artistic administrator beginning in 1989 and its chorus master from 1993 on, keenly felt the demise of the company he loved. “I felt it was like the plot of a terribly tragic opera of which I wanted no part,” Harp wrote to The Baltimore Sun in 2020.

Baltimore Opera Company eventually reorganized as Lyric Opera Baltimore and retained Harp as its artistic director. For five more seasons, it continued to perform at a high level at the Lyric—but Baltimore audiences’ changing tastes and increased competition in the market caused it to voluntarily fold in 2017.

But Harp and a dedicated team of board members felt opera still had a place in Baltimore; they just needed to find it. They tried again, forming Maryland Opera in 2018 with a rigorous eye toward sustainability.

“We came back with the intention of being an opera company with education programs and full stage productions but also acknowledging the new way of producing theater as being very flexible.” Harp explains. “And indeed we did not really have a home, but have found a home around the state.”

Today, Maryland Opera is appealing to new audiences, producing fully staged productions at unconventional venues like their popular First Friday performances at Boordy Vineyards. They’re also fostering a love of opera with a new generation through school programs and a two-week Opera Camp offered completely free for high school and early college-age students.

Baltimore Opera Company’s 2009 loss was another’s gain: The professional company Opera Baltimore was founded that year and today produces major, fully staged operas, such as this month’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto.

“We began as a group of choristers who got together to produce one concert opera while the Baltimore Opera Company figured out how they were going to get past this hurdle and move forward,” recalls Opera Baltimore’s artistic director and general director Julia Turner Cooke, referring to Baltimore Opera Company’s bankruptcy. And from the start, they had a community-driven mission. “We’ve always been trying to do our best to run a conscientious, thoughtful opera company that honors all of the people involved,” says Cooke.

One of the ways Opera Baltimore lives out this goal is through community engagement initiatives. Last season, it partnered with several West Baltimore community organizations and the Enoch Pratt Free Library to create a series of events called Opera on the Avenue, to uplift the stories of African-American artists from Baltimore.

The first phase of the project celebrated African-American opera singer and Old West Baltimore native Anne Wiggins Brown, who was the first person to play “Bess” in George Gershwin’s famous opera Porgy and Bess. A special exhibit, titled “Baltimore Legends,” featured Anne Wiggins Brown and other Baltimore musicians and appeared online and in print at several city branches of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

“Baltimore City is a predominantly African-American city. We are Opera Baltimore and we want to speak into—or sing into—the experience of our neighbors and our community. We want opera to be relevant and galvanize conversation,” says Catrin Davies, who serves as Opera Baltimore’s director of community engagement and development. In that role she also leads the organization’s other outreach initiatives that include school music programs and Opera Club, which she describes as, “like book club, only louder!”

Davies also wants to spread the word that Baltimore has performance opportunities for young and emerging singers, such as with the Young Victorian Theatre Company—known informally as “Young Vic”—where she also serves as artistic director. Each summer it performs an operetta—which tend to be lighter and often comedic—by Gilbert and Sullivan.

“Young Vic is fully professional in its staff and its principal [performers] and its orchestra. But the chorus is volunteer,” says Davies. “That alchemy is just so exciting because the principals are reminded of the joy of performing when they see these choristers coming to every rehearsal, prepared and bringing a high level of artistry, and, conversely, the chorus members get to be part of a very professional production.”

“WE WANT OPERA TO BE RELEVANT AND GALVANIZE CONVERSATION.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise that opera refuses to let the curtain fall in Baltimore given the city’s wealth of young talent, stemming from the its many exceptional opera-training programs.

At the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, singers have the opportunity to hone their craft in numerous performances, including a full opera production on the mainstage each semester—all of which the public is welcome to attend. And in preparation for graduation, they have access to classes and support to help them bridge the gap between being a student and a working professional through Peabody’s “Breakthrough Curriculum.”

“We want our students to think of what it means to be a citizen artist, and think about your career as being immersed in the community, and giving the community something that it needs or wants,” explains Elizabeth Futral, an internationally celebrated soprano who serves as Peabody’s Marc C. Von May Distinguished Chair of Vocal Studies.

Dr. Phillip Collister-Murray serves as professor of voice and chair of the music department at Towson University, which also performs a number of quality operas each year that are open to the public. He agrees that real-world skills are essential for today’s opera singers, who face a very different stage than their 20th-century counterparts.

“[Singers] need to have an entrepreneurial mindset and create for themselves the opportunities they will need to be successful,” explains Collister-Murray. “At Towson, you are required to take a number of courses outside of your discipline, which gives a broader perspective. We really nurture our students and are honest with them about what they need to do to be successful.”

A bit of a hidden gem is the vocal program at Morgan State University (MSU). At MSU’s Opera Workshop, students are acquainted with a broad knowledge of opera literature and receive practical onstage experience through the performance of solo and ensemble work. Marquita Lister, the workshop’s artistic director, whose stage credits include performing as “Bess” in New York City Opera’s Emmy Award-nominated production of Porgy and Bess, explains that the program is designed to engage participants in the intellectual and physical techniques used in the development of believable characters on stage and everything that goes into creating fully staged productions.

“For me, especially working at an HBCU [Historically Black Colleges and Universities], it is really important for our students to understand that we have excellence at all levels,” she states.

Students don’t have to look too far to find an exemplar of that excellence. Denyce Graves, one of the most acclaimed mezzo-sopranos of all time, whose Met performances of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila are the stuff of legends, serves as faculty member at Peabody Institute and is a regular presence in Baltimore. Her voice has been the soundtrack to some of America’s most important moments, including a memorial service for victims of 9/11 in September 2001 and the state funeral for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Several years ago, Graves became aware of the story of the late Mary Cardwell Dawson—a singer of color who founded the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) in 1941. In spite of Dawson’s talent and notable achievements—among them having her beloved NNOC perform on the Met stage—very few in the classical music world knew her story. Graves is working to change that. In 2021, she founded The Denyce Graves Foundation. Its Hidden Voices program seeks to sleuth out and elevate the stories of individuals like Dawson who deserve a place in our collective history.

“If we don’t tell a complete story of our history, whoever tells the narrative sort of controls what information we all learn,” says Graves. “I believe that this lack of information has hurt us all and created all kinds of stereotypes.”

Another key initiative of her Foundation is Shared Voices, a collaboration between HBCUs and top conservatories and schools of music in the United States that seeks to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion to music programming. Baltimore’s own Peabody Institute will host a Classical Vocal Arts Symposium for Shared Voices participants and others this fall, intended to provide students access to information about how careers in the classical vocal arts develop and focus on important aspects of a singer’s career, including vocal health, mental health, and physical fitness.

“HBCUs have this very rich [vocal] tradition, but oftentimes lack the resources to nurture this incredible talent,” says Graves. “I’m really proud that Peabody has really stepped out in front to develop and host this symposium.”

Inclusive, innovative efforts like these are what Baltimore’s opera scene needs to thrive into a fourth century. Says Graves, “I hope that more programs like this can be a bridge to help us all celebrate what is beautiful and what is great about all of us.”

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Laura Farmer is a communications professional and former opera singer.

Visual Art

Amalie R. Rothschild Rock Icons & Images

Don’t miss your opportunity to catch the work of Amalie R. Rothschild, the “unofficial photographer of Woodstock,” at Goya Contemporary Gallery. The documentary-style work captures some of rock’s greatest personalities during the turbulent late ‘60s and early ‘70s, chronicling one of the most iconic periods of American music and history. Through March 2. Goya Contemporary Gallery, 3000 Chestnut Ave.

Literature

Writers LIVE! R. Eric Thomas, Here For It

Park School alum R. Eric Thomas offers the internet his best jokes and hottest takes in his daily humor column, “Eric Reads the News.” Now get a more personal set of tales with his new book of essays, Here for It. The man himself will make a stop at Central Library’s Wheeler Auditorium this month to discuss his childhood between two vastly different neighborhoods, finding love, and the wild world of internet fame. Feb. 20. Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St.

Bruce Goldfarb’s 18 Tiny Deaths

Hear the story of one of Baltimore’s most impactful quirks as Bruce Goldfarb presents his 18 Tiny Deaths, The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics. The 18 tiny deaths refer to the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of painstakingly recreated crime scenes that, at first a hobby for Lee, turned into a teaching tool for generations of criminal investigators. The scenes, now housed Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office, are still used for forensic seminars today. 7-9 p.m. Feb. 15. Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Rd.

Music

Psycho Killers at Union Craft Brewing

Before David Byrne takes the SNL stage this month, get your fix with this tribute to the New Wave icon’s first project: The Talking Heads. The boys of Psycho Killers will be on hand at Union on Valentine’s Day to play hits like “This Must Be The Place” and “Once in a Lifetime,” as well as love songs from other bands’ discographies, throughout the evening. 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. Feb. 14. UNION Craft Brewing, 1700 W. 41st St.

Pleasure For Your Palette: A Colorful Night With Emerging Opera Stars

February is the month for opera, with multiple opportunities from the likes of The Acme Corporation and Opera Alchemy around the city. But for those looking for a survey of the operatic talent Baltimore has to offer, Creative Alliance has gathered a crew of rising stars. In this intimate performance, soprano Victoria Zelefsky, mezzo Taylor Hillary Boykins, tenor Henry William Hubbard, bass Aaron Thacker, and pianist Maria Adele Scott will join together for a night of solo and ensemble work and discussion. 8 p.m. Feb. 28. Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Theatre

MICA Fifth Annual Benefit Drag Show

Great music, creative costumes, lots of glitter, and the chance to support MICA’s LGBTQ scholarships—this drag show truly has it all. Members of the art school’s Faculty and Staff Queer Alliance will join pro kings and queens Miss Sue Nami, Dee Dee Dereon, Venus Festrada, Gadfrie Arbulu, and Chris Jay for this night of fun that helps fund the FASQA Awards, given each year to a a student in the community who demonstrated financial need and another to a student who has shown involvement in and commitment to LGBTQ+ issues. 8-10 p.m. Feb. 28. The Gateway BBOX Theater, 1601 W. Mount Royal Ave.

Film

Open House: True Laurels—A Gallop Through Time

Though they’re not as prevalent as they once were, Baltimore’s arabbers remain an essential part of the city’s cultural identity. On Feb. 22, join True Laurels founder Lawrence Burney for a screening of the documentary We Are Arabbers and a discussion with former members of the trade to discuss the occupation’s past and what can be done to preserve it for the future. 2-4 p.m. Feb. 22. The Baltimore Museum Art, 10 Art Museum Dr.

News

Black Arts District Launches its New Brand

The new Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District plans to launch its first branding initiative in style with a party at Shake & Bake Family Fun Center on Feb. 16. Creative Director Tia Newton and her team will be on hand to talk about what’s coming up for the newly minted arts district in addition to plenty of fun events such as dancing, $1 skating and bowling, and themed giveaways.

The Walters Receives $500,000 Endowment from Boshell

The Boshell Foundation, the group responsible for The Walters’ long-running ancient art and architecture lectures, recently announced a $500,000 endowment for the museum to go toward the continuation of the popular series. “We are deeply thankful for their generous endowment gift and look forward to the lectures it will provide in years to come,” Walters Director Julia Marciari-Alexander said in a statement released by the museum. The Boshell Lecture Series was originally launched in 2017, and the newest installment, “How Many Noses Can One Face Have?,” about the evolution of taste when it comes to restoration and repair work, will take place Sunday, April 19.

The Afro Punk Ballet, an Afro-futurist opera written by composer Scott Patterson and Eric T. Styles and choreographer Preston Andrew Patterson, imagines a post-apocalyptic future where the lush blue green of our world is scorched dusty red by the heat of two suns. “There used to be a river here” General Levi (played by Jarrod Lee) bellows with lament over the devastation wreaked by his greatest invention, the creation of a second sun. His miraculous discovery threatens to destroy all life in the galaxy. What compels a man to generate a second sun? His daughters Corfazsia (Jocelyn Hunt) and Jakub (Alicia Wiliams) are charged to answer that question. We, the audience, watch to see if the world will collapse before they can.

Produced by Afro House, the production is described as “an exploration of the crossroads between African spirituality, mathematics, and physics” and it’s set in an indistinct universe sometime in the distant future. The hypnotizing coo of mezzo-soprano Spirit/Legba (Elise Jenkins) pierces the eerie still of the intimate Peale Center. Her face and those of the other chorus members is obscured by intricate laser printed helmets designed by A.W. Nadine Grant. Scott Patterson plays melodic riffs on his red Fender Rhodes from the center of the room.

The soundscapes evoke the familiar ethereal resonance and pulsing punk accents of sci-fi classics like Blade Runner or Fantastic Planet, but also cull from black musical traditions like gospel, blues, jazz, Afrobeat, and hip hop to illuminate the environments of this new world. If Herbie Hancock and Daft Punk had an interstellar love child that was raised on the avant-garde compositions of Sun Ra, the child would create music that sounds something like this, an otherworldly groove that is operatic but also deeply soulful.

Each of Patterson’s intonations are echoed and accentuated with gush worthy choral accompaniments. Spoiler alert: everybody can sang! Their soaring arias describe the woeful destruction of the second sun and humanities imminent demise. Jakub, the youngest daughter of General Levi, leaps and sprints around the scene. Each pirouette channels celestial orbits, or portals that open passageways to future nows and yesteryears. Her movements are a significant feature of her developing powers, gifts that are slowly revealed in Act 1. Her eldest sister, Corfazsia, a military prodigy readies her army for a war that is rumored to be encroaching on their families territory. With a running time of roughly 50 minutes, Act 1 lays the foundation for a dynamic Afro-futurist tale like nothing that you have ever experienced before.

We spoke with the Patterson brothers during a dress rehearsal of the first act of The Afro Punk Ballet about their inspiration, creative process, and why they chose this medium.

The Afro Punk Ballet is currently in development. How far are you from showcasing the full production?
Scott Patterson: We have had the concept for this for about 4 or 5 years and talked about the idea of a piece called Afro Punk Ballet, inspired by the Afropunk movement, not just the festival.

Preston made the point yesterday that, “We are all fighting for a piece of ourselves in the story.” I think our story reflects that. This summer we had a residency at Single Carrot Theatre for a week to work on a preview of a preview. After that preview [we] decided to concentrate on Act 1. We are really trying to build a universe, not just create a new world, but a new solar system, way of being, [and] that takes time.

Preston Patterson: We wanted the freedom to create as much as we could. We have been playing around with the idea that this is not earth, our solar system or our time. What we are attempting is to take who we are and put that in another time and space. This is an experiment.

Why did you choose opera as the medium to tell this narrative?
SP: Lots of reasons. I love the way opera is big and able to be big. I felt like that is one thing I feel is missing from a lot of Black narratives in all mediums. I’ve been wanting to see Black people in epic bigness. The cast is currently nine people. I envision the cast becoming 45-50 people. [This] one story is going to spawn dozens of other stories. I wanted to give a genesis.

That means it has to be a really big concept and I feel that opera was one way to tackle that. I wanted to see black opera singers in roles that liberate them and place them as more than marginal characters. We wanted to write stories that we thought were dope.

When his team doesn’t make the Super Bowl, what’s an NFL player to do? Apparently, go on CBS’s Most Valuable Performer to show off some of his not-so-hidden talents. 

Of the six contestants on the show, which aired on Thursday night at 8 p.m., half of them were Baltimore Ravens giving us an unfair advantage out of the gate. 

First up was the always entertaining Brandon Williams who, clad in a gold sequin jacket, broke out some falsetto, vibrato, and signature dance moves while he sang “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars. The celebrity judges were wowed by his energy and level of crowd participation.

The next Raven to perform was running back Alex Collins, whose moves we have seen in the end zone, but never quite like this. Collins, with a partner and dance troupe, performed traditional Irish dancing—kilts, high-stepping, and all—to a sped-up Ed Sheeran track. Judge Brandon Marshall could hardly believe the fancy footwork. 

A few more contestants showed off their skills on piano, guitar, and, oddly, dog training. But the real moment came when kicker Justin Tucker stepped up to the mic and belted out Luciano Pavarotti’s version of “Ave Maria.” His silky, emotional vocals seemed to come as a surprise to the crowd and judges (especially a flustered Katharine McPhee). 

But we’ve been quite familiar with Tucker’s opera chops—both when he talked to us about his multi-talents a few years ago and, more recently, on display in many a Royal Farms commercial. 

The show’s host, LL Cool J, announced the competition’s three finalists, but we knew who the clear winner was all along. After Tucker’s name was announced, confetti rained down, his wife Amanda came to celebrate on stage, and the kicker announced that his $50,000 prize would be donated to Baltimore School for the Arts.

“This will hopefully keep encouraging Baltimore’s youth to stay involved with music, dance, and fine arts,” he said.

We may not have much to celebrate on Super Bowl Sunday, but at least we have the most accurate kicker in the NFL with operatic pipes to boot. Even Steelers fans were impressed.