Met Opera 2024-25: Grounded
COMPOSER: Jeanine Tesori/Libretti by George Brant
CONDUCTOR: Yannick Nézet-Séguin
PRODUCTION: Michael Mayer
SET DESIGNER: Mimi Lien
COSTUME DESIGNER: Tom Broecker
LIGHTING DESIGNER: Kevin Adams
CO-PROJECTION DESIGNERS: Jason H. Thompson, Kaitlyn Pietras
SOUND DESIGNER: Palmer Hefferan
CHOREOGRAPHER: David Neumann
DRAMATURG: Paul Cremo
CAST: Emily D'Angelo, Ellie Dehn, Ben Bliss, Kyle Miller, Greer Grimsley
RUN TIME: 140 minutes
Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera Grounded premieres at the Metropolitan Opera, wrestling with often-overlooked issues created by 21st-century warmaking: the ethical conflicts created by the use of modern military technology and the psychological and emotional toll supposedly safe remote technology takes on our servicepersons. Canadian mezzosoprano 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 costars as the Wyoming rancher Eric in a production by Michael Mayer that brings this story to life in a high-tech staging which presents a variety of perspectives on the action. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium to conduct Tesori’s kaleidoscopic opera.