A Louisville, Ky., video store manager's decision to knock on a block-long Winnebago with license plates that said "The Greatest" some 25 years ago is the impetus behind the Opera, "Approaching Ali," according to USA Today.
The opera is based on the life of the man who knocked on the door, writer Davis Miller, and the transformation of his life by the man who opened the door, Muhammad Ali.
The opera is based on Miller's book, "The Tao of Muhammad Ali," USA Today reports, and it describes how Ali influenced the North Carolina native and twice transformed Miller's life.
Miller said that being in the same room with the iconic former heavyweight champion of the world - "electrifying the air" was how Miller described it to USA Today, changed his life almost instantaneously. He added that the beginning his writing career coincided with the end of Ali's boxing career.
"I worked up the courage and knocked on the door," the 60-year-old Miller said. "Ali invited me in, and did magic tricks for me. I told him he saved my life as a kid."
Miller said he actually met Ali for the first time in 1975. He grew up idolizing Ali in his hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C., and tried to become a professional kick-boxer because of Ali. Miller said Winston-Salem didn't have any kind of organized boxing at the time.
When Miller was in college, he became acquainted with a man who turned out to be the nephew of Ali's trainer, Angelo Dundee. In 1975, the acquaintance told Miller that he could spar against Ali if he wanted. Ali would spar anyone at his training camp in Deer Lake, Pa., in preparation for his second fight with Joe Bugner.
Miller went, got in the ring with Ali and wrote his about his experience for "Sports Illustrated." He told USA Today that he received $750 for his effort.
Miller showed Ali the article during their meeting in Ali's Winnebago. He said that Parkinson's already had set in with Ali, and Ali's mother invited him to dinner. After that meeting, Miller wrote another piece for "Esquire Magazine" titled, "My Dinner With Ali." The article won several writing awards, launching Miller's career.
A few years ago, Miller met a musician-composer named D.J. Sparr in Richmond, Va., and told him about his idea about his book being turned into some sort of musical. Sparr told USA Today that the Washington National Opera called him, soliciting ideas for a new project and he pitched the Miller-Ali story.
That pitch has turned into a premiere in Washington D.C. this weekend.
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