We have detected that you are using an adblocking plugin in your browser.

The revenue we earn by the advertisements is used to manage this website. Please whitelist our website in your adblocking plugin.

SCRUTINY | New York City Opera's "Fallujah" Explores The Tragic Resonance Of War

By Lev Bratishenko on November 22, 2016

"Fallujah" an authentic, brutal exploration of the tragic complexities of war.(Photo: Sarah Shatz/New York City Opera)
“Fallujah” an authentic, brutal exploration of the tragic complexities of war.(Photo: Sarah Shatz/New York City Opera)

Fallujah: co-produced by New York City Opera-Long Beach Opera. Andreas Mitisek (director), Tobin Stokes (composer), Heather Raffo (libretto) at The Duke on 42nd Street, NYC.

NEY YORK CITY — War is usually told through stories of heroism and horror, but it’s also a grind, and the same can be said about opera. Tobin Stokes and Heather Raffo’s Fallujah is not a faux-filmic spectacle with blood packs and recorded explosions. It tells a story about the consequences of an ordinary act of war, about ordinary soldiers and ordinary residents of the city those soldiers were ordered to attack. It is an opera about the terror of numbness, and the fear that behind the numbness is something worse than pain.

Fallujah was originally commissioned by the Vancouver City Opera over five years ago, and it premiered as a New York City Opera-Long Beach Opera coproduction in March before running for four days in New York in November. That this is the lifespan of a contemporary opera on a subject as timely as a recent battle in Iraq may be a jolt for partisans of topicality.

(Photo: Sarah Shatz/New York City Opera)
(Photo: Sarah Shatz/New York City Opera)

Suffering from PTSD and on suicide watch, Corporal Philip is locked in a military hospital room where he’s visited by his mother and some ghosts. While she begs him to let her in the room, Philip (LaMarcus Miller) relives his killing of a woman, the mother of a boy he’d come to know — occupiers get the opportunity to recognize their victims in a way that assaulting forces do not. 

The New York cast is the same that performed in Long Beach; they are comfortably intense and they are led by the remarkably expressive Miller, an opera singer who could easily be an actor. Philip is the most developed character, an orphan, but even he has a typological condition that’s shared by the indulgently stern squad leader, racist-but-goodhearted-and-soon-to-be-dead and assorted-interchangeable squaddies, purse-clutching adoptive mother, attached-to-her-home Iraqi, peaceful-until-destroyed-by-the-war boy, and candy shop-owner-turned-rebel sniper.

(Photo: Sarah Shatz/New York City Opera)
(Photo: Sarah Shatz/New York City Opera)

Listed like this they appear to be weaknesses, and perhaps they are, but whether it is intentional or accidental, Fallujah does not glamorize. There is not even the implicit heroism of the unique story told, only its tragic resonance. I suspect there are thousands of “Fallujahs” walking the streets of America (and Canada), soldiers who can’t undo the past or live in the present, and whose stories are not likely to match the scenic and firm arcs of war films. 

Raffa keeps enough back that the opera holds you with suspense for eighty minutes and Stokes has written effective music for her unassuming text. The combination produces simple turns of unexpected power, like boots suddenly stomping up the stairs. There is a lovely trio of phone calls home, and a wrenching duo of mothers grieving for their sons. The nine-piece ensemble often disappears in double-time electric guitar and drum explosions; these announce every moment of action and grate from overuse, but once you accept the idea that numbness is the point, there’s very little that isn’t interesting.

#LUDWIGVAN

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review before anyone else finds out? Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for all the latest.

Share this article
lv_toronto_banner_high_590x300
comments powered by Disqus

FREE ARTS NEWS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX, EVERY MONDAY BY 6 AM

company logo

Part of

Terms of Service & Privacy Policy
© 2024 | Executive Producer Moses Znaimer