Soldier stories: Opera “The Falling and The Rising” focuses on life in military.
The U.S. Army and five American opera companies have teamed up to commission and produce a new work that portrays life in today’s military. Librettist Jerre Dye and composer Zach Redler interviewed 25 active duty soldiers whose stories are retold through the voices of five composite characters.
“The Falling and The Rising” had its debut in April at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Critic Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News described the compositional style and general feel of the work as a unique blend of opera and musical theater.
In the coming seasons, the work will be staged by major companies in Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix and Memphis. Also a member of the commissioning consortium is the Seagle Colony in Schroon Lake, which is taking the opera on a regional tour.
Next weekend it can be seen on Friday evening at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls and at two Saturday performances at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge. Other sites are located in the Adirondack communities of Old Forge, North Creek and Plattsburgh. (The full schedule can be viewed at seaglecolony.org.)
The idea of an opera about contemporary Army life came from Staff Sgt. Benjamin Hilgert, who is a tenor in the Soldiers’ Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band. The chorus travels widely in presenting more than 100 free performances a year. Members also performed roles in the world premiere of the opera.
Hilgert, 37, has had an opera obsession since his first encounter with the form at age 20. A few years ago, as part of his duties with the Army chorus, he organized some semi-staged opera arias with fellow choristers as soloists. Afterward, Hilgert’s superior directed the sergeant to focus on something more closely related to the chorus’ mission of connecting the American public with the Army and honoring those who serve.
Hilgert’s initial thought was a new choral work. But only a short time later he attended the 2015 conference of Opera America, the trade association for opera companies and artists. At the gathering he became set on commissioning a full-fledged opera. Opera insiders quickly connected him with Darren Woods, Seagle’s artistic director and one of the nation’s top impresarios of new opera. By the end of that conference, Hilgert
and Woods were co-producers and the commissioning companies were lined up.
After a couple years of effort by its creators, the brand new score had its first reading in Schroon Lake during summer 2017. The Seagle Colony’s Julyaugust season usually consists of several fully staged operas and a musical. But in recent years ancillary readings of new and in-progress works have become a regular part of the activities.
“I was blown away,” says Hilgert. “I’ve been excited from the beginning of the process, but sitting through the piano vocal workshop at the Seagle Colony was an incredibly emotional experience.”
Even more powerful was the fully staged debut in Fort Worth, where the audience included many of the soldiers who had participated in the initial interviews that became the opera’s source material. According to Hilgert, one of them said afterward that he felt “his truth” was being told onstage. “That’s the most meaningful response that I could have heard,” says Hilgert.
“The Falling and The Rising” is constructed as a series of monologues. The unifying thread is a female hero, known only as “The Soldier.” At the start she’s stationed on the front (the war is never named). Shortly after concluding a conversation with her teenage daughter via Skype, she is wounded by a bomb. Her condition is so grave that she’s put into a medically induced coma. In her dream state, she connects with other soldiers who recount their own struggles and back stories. The piece concludes with a positive message of service and patriotism.
“It’s all based on what people said,” explains Woods. “Our singers feel a responsibility in representing actual people.”
During his 16-year tenure as general director of the Fort Worth Opera, which concluded early last year, Woods commissioned and debuted a series of new American operas from an entire generation of composers and writers. He acknowledges Redler’s strong background in musical theater and counts that
as an asset, believing that the melodic style helps make the piece “accessible.”
“I hate the word ‘accessible’ but it’s all we’ve got,” says Woods.
From the start, Woods encouraged the creative team to fashion something that was versatile and intelligible, whether it was seen in a high school gymnasium or in a traditional theater. For the Seagle Colony tour, an elaborate portable set was created and the student singers will be accompanied by piano. At its next outing in Memphis during the spring, the opera will be performed with orchestra.
“People are often terrified of the word opera and don’t know what it is,” says Woods. “I wanted this to be something they can wrap their arms around.”
For a few decades now opera has been wrapping its arms around contemporary history. The socalled “CNN School” of American opera was launched back in the mid-80s with John Adams’ “Nixon in China.” There followed operas about Harvey Milk, Malcolm X, JFK, and Steve Jobs.
A subset within this trend is the recent series of new operas about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2015 Opera Saratoga debuted “The Long Walk,” based on the novel by veteran Brian Castner and composed by Jeremy Howard Beck. In June, “An American Soldier” premiered at Opera Theater St. Louis with music by Huang Ruo and libretto by David Henry Hwang. There’s also “Soldier Songs” from David T. Little (composer of “Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera,” seen this summer at Opera Saratoga), and “Glory Denied” by Tom Cipullo, one of the most widely performed American operas of the new millennium.
Our nation’s ongoing military engagements often get buried or overlooked in the daily deluge of news and entertainment. Maybe “The Falling and The Rising” and similar operas can shed new light on these struggles and even bring some fresh insight and understanding.