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        Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera Developed by the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program Grounded is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and Washington National Opera.


        Unavailable for performance.

        • 3(III:pic).2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn/4.3.3.1/timp.3perc/pf(cel)/str
        • Male chorus
        • Treble, Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Tenor, Tenor, Baritone, Bass
        • 2 hr
        • George Brant
        • English

        Programme Note

        Cast List
        Principals
           JESS: Mezzo-soprano – Ace F-16 Fighter pilot reassigned to drone operation
           ERIC: Tenor – Jess's husband, a rancher, passionate, midwestern, both feet on the ground
           COMMANDER: Bass – 50's/60's, experienced warrior, with the nobility of a veteran of past wars
           TRAINER: Tenor – 20's-30's, show off, true believer in the new technology
           SENSOR: Baritone – 19-year-old dude, video game master, chews gum, into cars
           SAM – Jess and Eric's 5-year-old daughter (amplified)
           ALSO JESS: Soprano – Jess's dissociated self in Act II when her mental state disintegrates

        Chorus (TTBarB)
           Fighter Squadron, Bar Pilots, Trainees, Drone Squadron, Mall Squadron

        Chorus Solo Roles
           Kill Chain (offstage)
              MISSION COORDINATOR: Tenor
              GROUND CONTROL: Tenor
              JOINT TERMINAL ATTACK CONTROLLER: Baritone
              SAFETY OBSERVER: Baritone
              JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL: Bass
           SOLO PILOT 1: Tenor
           SOLO PILOT 2: Tenor or Baritone
           SEAT WARMER: Baritone
           GROUND CREW: Spoken

        Silent roles
           OBSERVERS – 2 male supers, 30's-40's; stoic watchers/note-takers in dress uniform – dressed differently from pilots

        Synopsis
        Jess is a hot shot F-16 fighter pilot, an elite warrior trained for the sky. When an unexpected pregnancy grounds her, she’s reassigned to the “chair force” to control drones in Afghanistan from the comfort of a trailer in Las Vegas. But war “with all the benefits of home” isn’t clear-cut. As Jess tracks terrorists by day and rocks her daughter to sleep by night, the boundary between her worlds becomes dangerously permeable.

         

        Media

        "All for the Blue" from "Grounded"

        Features

        • Opera Highlights Summer Fall 2024
          • Opera Highlights Summer Fall 2024
          • Ahead of Opera America’s 2024 Opera Conference and the World Opera Forum, Wise Music Classical invites you to explore new highlights from our opera catalogue. Across major premieres, new productions, and first recordings, our composers and their collaborators explore both timely issues and the timeless themes of love, desire, and belonging.
        • New Opera Highlights from Wise Music Classical
          • New Opera Highlights from Wise Music Classical
          • Wise Music Classical invites you to explore new highlights from our opera catalogue. In these recent and upcoming premieres, new productions, and premiere recordings, our composers and their creative collaborators explore subjects ranging from the historical (Hadrian, X: The Life and Times of Malcom X, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) to the futuristic (Oryx and Crake), the fantastic (El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego, Florencia en el Amazonas, Die Kinder des Sultans) to the thoroughly contemporary (Grounded, Blue, Innocence, The Shell Trial). Threaded throughout these works are perennial themes of loss, longing, magic, art-making, and community.

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