Grounded

In its Metropolitan Opera premiere, Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera Grounded wrestles with often-overlooked issues created by 21st-century warmaking: the ethical conflicts posed by the use of modern military technology, and the psychological and emotional toll that supposedly safe remote technology takes on our servicepersons. Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo stars as the hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. American tenor Ben Bliss co-stars as the Wyoming rancher Eric in a production by Michael Mayer, which brings this story to life in a high-tech staging presenting a variety of perspectives on the action. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium to conduct Tesori’s kaleidoscopic opera.

Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Librettist: George Brant
Production: Michael Mayer
Set Designer: Mimi Lien
Costume Designer: Tom Broecker
Lighting Designer: Kevin Adams
Co–Projection Designers: Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras
Sound Designer: Palmer Hefferan
Choreographer: David Neumann
Dramaturg: Paul Cremo