2024-09-25 17:47:16
Also in the new season, which opens this Monday, the Metropolitan Opera in New York will present contemporary works with the aim of reaching younger audiences.
In recent years, one of the world’s most famous scenes has achieved this with the operas Hodiny or Oheň v kost, which were also broadcast live in Czech cinemas. The same applies to the news called On Earth. New Yorkers can see it under the name Grounded already, it will be in theaters on October 19.
As AFP writes, the opera deals with overlooked aspects of warfare in the 21st century. It was composed by 62-year-old New York native Jeanine Tesori, who is a Tony Award winner, to a libretto by contemporary playwright George Brant.
The novel tells about a successful fighter pilot. We first see her in the cockpit of an F-16 flying over Iraq as a female version of Maverick from the movie Top Gun, the New York Times reports.
But then the heroine unexpectedly becomes pregnant with a rancher, and after the birth of her daughter, she has to permanently return to earth from the cockpit of a fighter jet. She starts working as a Reaper drone operator, which in practice means she sits in Nevada and remotely controls a drone operating on the other side of the world.
The opera deals with the ethical questions raised by the use of modern war technologies. One moment the heroine is wreaking havoc with a drone and the next she’s running away from work to pick up her daughter from kindergarten.
The opera deals with overlooked aspects of warfare in the 21st century. | Photo: Scott Suchman
The work does not have its world premiere at the New York Met. It was seen for the first time last year by visitors to Washington’s Kennedy Center, where, however, it aroused embarrassing, even negative responses. According to the New York Times, it was too obvious that it was based on a theatrical model. The Washington Post, on the other hand, complained that some characters seemed superfluous.
In response, the composer and librettist, who have more experience in musical theater and musicals, revised the opera. The new version is 45 minutes shorter. “One mustn’t be afraid to cut into it,” notes Jeanine Tesori.
In order to show the heroine’s split, she steps up the work with the pitch of the voice, until the moment when the singing part splits into two. “I started from the image of a woman in which even the cells of her body seem to begin to divide. The pitch of her voice fluctuates and is distorted in various ways until it separates and becomes an independent voice. Because she cannot come to terms with what she sees,” she explains composer.
The protagonist, initially dressed in Canadians and a US Air Force uniform, is sung by Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo. She already played it last year in Washington.
On earth, it will be the first ever opera composed by a woman to open the New York Met season. It has existed since 1883. “I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it’s a wonderful honor. On the other hand, it’s really about time,” adds the author for the AFP agency.
The work was staged by the Met Orchestra under the baton of its music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, directed by Michael Mayer. Czechs will be able to see On Earth on Saturday, October 19, when ten cinemas in Prague, Hradec Králové, Chomutov, Kutná Hora, Náchod, Pilsen, Semilech, Vrchlabí and Žatec will broadcast it live.
However, direct transmissions from the Metropolitan Opera to Czech cinemas will begin next Saturday, October 5, when the program will feature The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. In the 2024/2025 season, viewers can expect eight titles, including classics such as Aida, Tosca, Fidelio, and The Barber of Seville.
Video: Sample from the opera On Earth
Emily D’Angelo sings the aria All for the Blue from the opera On Earth, presented last year by the Kennedy Center in Washington. | Video: The Kennedy Center