On Saturday, the day before 9/11, the new opera Heart of a Soldier premières in San Francisco. Thomas Hampson leads the cast.
ABC took their cameras backstage:
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Matthew Felix Sun says
It’s a touching story. However, it is rather dramatically weak and meandering. The score is too sweeping rather than somber. By confining the scope to the personal story, the creators also wasted the opportunity for a deeper dialogue. Very interestingly, the protagonist and his best friend fought in Vietnam, a war did not received well in this country and often seen as unjust. The “just war” was mentioned in the synopsis, so I’m touching on it. The missing component is how and if the Islamic terrorists saw any justification in their despicable actions? How are we to solve the issues instead of by being more vigilant and more aggressive? This is something should be debated and unfortunately the opera failed to address.