Julia Bullock gives the highly anticipated French premiere of her acclaimed project Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine this fall in eight performances at the Opéra national de Paris, opening the venue’s season and honoring Baker in the country that made her famous on the 120th anniversary of her birth. Inspired by the life and art of Joséphine Baker, Bullock developed the project in collaboration with storied opera director Peter Sellars and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tyshawn Sorey, with spoken interludes by poet Claudia Rankine. Sorey joins Bullock for the performance, conducting the members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (Sep 9-19). The following month, Bullock gives yet another high-profile account of the work with the same forces, this time at London’s Barbican Centre (Oct 20). After she performed Perle Noire at Australia’s Adelaide Festival last season, Australian Stage declared that “Bullock’s gorgeous, velvety voice has a huge range, which was richly exploited by Sorey’s music,” and Bachtrack concluded: “Overall this was Bullock’s show – brilliantly sung (mostly not operatically), danced and acted, providing not only a glimpse into the life of Joséphine Baker, but also that of all black women in white society.”