Lakeside Little Theatre (LLT) will project The Metropolitan Opera’s filmed live performance of “Grounded” Sunday and Monday, November 17 and 18 at 4 p.m.
“This may be the perfect show for someone new to opera,” stated LLT’s marketing director Dave Ellison. “I am not an opera fan, and personally find many of the stories to be both simplistic and melodramatic. I am looking forward to Grounded, though, with its modern, wrenching plot dealing with enduring themes such as war, duty, career, marriage, and the devastating toll on an individual when all of them collide. And, of course, this opera will be sung in English, so I’ll understand the words!”
Grounded tells the tale of a hot-shot F16 fighter pilot, Tess, the only woman in her squadron. When she becomes pregnant after a leave with her soon-to-be husband, Eric, she must choose between ending the pregnancy or her career. She decides to have the child, is “grounded” (barred from flying), but eventually becomes a drone pilot based in Las Vegas. While Tess finds the new post to be nowhere near as exciting or prestigious, she faces tortuous moral dilemmas that threaten her marriage, her motherhood, and even her sanity; until finally, during one incredibly tense mission, she makes a devastating decision.
George Brant wrote the stage play “Grounded,” which opened to wide acclaim in 2013. Tony-Award-winning Jeanine Tesori composed the music for the revised 2023 opera version.
The New York Times stated that opera star Emily D’Angelo had been “perfectly cast” as Tess, while The Washington Post praised the music as one of “surprising delicacy and daring.” Broadway World concurred, calling the score “alternately sweeping, plaintive, elegiac, whimsical, satiric, mocking, poetic or emphatic.” Complex and edgy, Grounded has been criticized for being both anti- and pro-war.
Grounded was filmed live at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and will be projected in Lakeside Little Theatre’s main auditorium (San Antonio Tlayacapan on Allen W. Lloyd Drive) with its state-of-the-art screen and sound system. Tickets, 350 pesos, are available at lakesidelittletheatre.com.