Champion is a 2013 Opera with music by Terence Blanchard and a libretto by Michael Cristofer, which is a dramatization of the life of real-life boxer Emile Griffith, using the Framing Device of an old Griffith, affected by dementia due to his time in boxing, recalling his previous life. It chronicles him going to the United States from the Virgin Islands and becoming involved in boxing, his rise to prominence, and how he struggles with his sexuality and the homophobia that surrounds him, and is haunted by accidentally killing his opponent in the ring.
Tropes:
- Accidental Athlete: Howie discovers Emile while he is making hats and is impressed with how strong he is, which turns out to be due to him being forced to lift cinder blocks as a child. He promptly recruits Emile into boxing as a result.
- Berserk Button: Emile is very upset about the homophobic insults Benny levies at him, and has to be held back from fighting Benny then and there. When he does get a chance to box with him, he retaliates brutally.
- Biopic: Tells the story of the life of Emile Griffith, a boxer who existed in real life.
- Bullying a Dragon: Benny homophonically taunts Emile before their match, who retaliates by being brutal with him in their match, inadvertently leading to Benny's death.
- Call to Adventure: Howie appears near the beginning of the first act looking for a boxer, and when he sees how muscular and strong Emile is he introduces him to the sport, which Emile initially had no idea about.
- Casualty in the Ring: Emile knocks Benny Paret into a coma during their match at the end of the first act, and Benny dies ten days later. Benny is suggested to have died not only because Emile beat him so brutally but because he had a head injury from a previous fight and wasn't given time to recover.
- The Centerpiece Spectacular: The fight between Emile Griffith and Benny Paret at the end of the first act, which includes dramatic music besides the spectacle of the physical combat. The second act is relatively more low-key in comparison.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Emile was left by his mother, who didn't seem to pay that much attention to her children, with his cousin Blanche, who constantly forced him to carry cinder blocks as a punishment (leading to Emile becoming very strong).
- Dashed Plot Line: Several time skips are used. The first act, after the beginning How We Got Here scene, takes place in the late 1950s before skipping to 1962 when Griffith fights Benny Paret. The next act skips from the mid-to-late 60s to the early 1970s and then finally returns to older Emile.
- Delirious Misidentification: Older Emile, when suffering from dementia, mistakes Benny's son for Benny himself despite him being dead. Benny Jr. does say they look alike, which is shown by them being played by the same actor.
- Forgiveness: Emile talks to Benny's son, Benny Jr. in order to get forgiveness from him for killing his father, but Benny Jr. says he isn't the one Emile should be asking forgiveness from, and Emile instead needs to see if he can forgive himself. At the end, Emile decides that he can, shown as telling his forgiveness to the actor playin his younger self.
- Gayngst: Emile goes through a lot of angst from having to hide his sexuality, made worse by Howie's refusal to let him talk openly about it and the generally homophobic nature of the boxing world.
- Haunting the Guilty: An older Emile talks to Benny, who he thinks he sees. Benny tells Emile he didn't really want to kill him, but the aspect of himself that he hated which Benny was representing by how he taunted him.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: Emile is beaten up by a bunch of thugs after being seen in a gay bar. It accelerates the dementia he is already developing from his career of boxing.
- How We Got Here: Opens with an old Emile suffering from dementia reflecting back on his life.
- Manly Gay: Emile is interested in men and a champion boxer.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Emile is horrified by killing Benny and tries his whole life to find forgiveness for it.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The match between Emile Griffith and Benny Paret ends with the former landing many blows in quick succession to the latter, which later ends up killing him. Emile is also on the receiving end of one later on when he is beaten up upon being seen in a gay bar.
- Parental Neglect: Emelda, Emile's mother, had seven children by various fathers and left most of them, not even remembering Emile and thinking he's one of his brothers. Though admitting she wasn't a good mother, she wants Emile to at least love him as the only mother he has.
- Poirot Speak: Characters like Luis and Benny sometimes use Spanish words in their lines.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Howie tells Emile that he doesn't want to hear about why homophobic insults are so hurtful to him, that they have to pretend none of those rumors about him are true and instead he has to react to being insulted by ruthlessly retaliating against Benny and having a "killer instinct", because that's what a real man does.
- Sex for Solace: Emile goes to gay bars hoping that his affairs will make him forget his guilt over killing a man.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: When Emile was a child, his cousin Blanche tells him he has the devil inside him and punishes him as a result by making him carry cinder blocks. Emile decides maybe it's not such a bad thing to have the devil inside him, that even if it means he's evil at least the devil can give him strength to carry him through the ordeals he endures.
