“Damien Geter and Lila Palmer's American Apollo gives voice to a pivotal figure in American art: Thomas Eugene McKeller, a Black hotel worker who served as model and muse for famous portraitist John Singer Sargent. Themes of erasure, the white gaze and the nature of the relationship between the two men are explored in this powerful new work which makes its full-length world premiere at Des Moines Metro Opera in 2024.”