Finger Lakes Opera will mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a production exploring the sacrifices military members and their families make as the cost of U.S. freedom.Air Force Sgt. Ben Edquist, a baritone, will portray the older Col. Floyd James “Jim” Thompson, the longest-serving prisoner of war in U.S. history, in “Glory Denied” at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 19, at Robert F. Panara Theatre in Henrietta.
Lou Kerst, a tenor, will portray the younger Thompson during his nearly nine years in a Viet Cong prison, and sopranos Daniella Brancato and Hannah Moreno will portray the older and younger versions of his wife, Alyce, respectively. The opera focuses not just on Thompson’s sacrifice but that of his wife and their four children, composer Tom Cipullo said.
A panel discussion will follow the 85-minute opera. It will feature Edquist, Cipullo, Finger Lakes Opera Artistic Director Stephanie Havey and Trevor Jonas, a Marine who works for the Veterans Outreach Center. Counselors also will be on hand.
Havey, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, said that in planning the production, she and others talked in February to Cipullo during his short residency at Eastman School of Music.
They also reached out to the Veterans Outreach Center in Rochester, whose staff members worked with the opera company. “I’m so thankful for that collaboration. … It just brought a lot of depth,” she said, adding, “I think this piece is a celebration of our veterans and especially the Vietnam War veterans” who raised awareness of the needs of people coming back from war.
Besides the actors, the opera will include videos on three different surfaces, she said, which “allows us to blend the setting as well as the journey.” Among the highlights will be the comparison between the 1950s values that Vietnam War soldiers were raised with and how the culture had shifted in the 1970s, when Thompson was released.
“He expected to come back to the life he had left and everything was completely different,” Havey said.
“Col. Thompson must have thought he came back to Mars,” Cipullo said.
Tom Philpott interviewed Thompson, his family and military colleagues for an oral history; the book, “Glory Denied: The Saga of Jim Thompson,” first was published in 2001. After reading a New York Times review, Cipullo read the book and couldn’t put it down. “He’s just a brilliant, brilliant writer, and the book is haunting,” said Cipullo, of Long Island City in Queens. He spent several years turning the story into the opera, which debuted in 2007.
At the time, composers were told not to write an opera unless it was commissioned. However, Cipullo said, “I just felt I had to do it,” adding that he tells students to “write where your heart wants to.” Now, “Glory Denied” has been performed more than 40 times and recorded twice.
The issues of veterans returning to home life and dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism and addiction are central themes.
Thompson was aboard a plane that was shot down near Quảng Trị, South Vietnam, on March 26, 1964, and suffered a broken back, a bullet wound across the cheek and burns. He was captured by the Viet Cong, tortured, starved and isolated, not speaking to another American for five years.
In the opera’s first act, Thompson looks back on his 3,278 days as a captive, when he survived by dreaming of and idealizing Alyce. However, Alyce, who assumed her husband was dead and refused to allow him to be included on the then-popular POW bracelets, is struggling to raise their four children amid fear, loneliness and pressure to go public. She eventually starts a relationship with another man and moves in with him.
In act two, the older Thompson is released March 16, 1973. and returns home, entering a new kind of torture when he finds his wife and his country have changed. Not only is Alyce now with another man, but also the country is caught up in riots against the Vietnam War and military service in general. “When they came home from Vietnam, they were called baby killers and greeted with hatred,” Cipullo said.
Havey said the costuming will emphasize the cultural changes, with the older Alyce wearing pants and having shorter hair.
The couple struggled to revive their marriage but ultimately divorced. Both became alcoholics.
“Daddy didn’t understand that Mama had a voice of her own; she wasn’t Mrs. Thompson anymore,” his son, Floyd “Jimmy” Thompson Jr. of Nashville, told the Kentucky Opera in 2019 as it was preparing a production of “Glory Denied.” “Mama didn’t understand what all Daddy was going through, the problems he had adapting and dealing with all the changes after nine years living through hell.”
“Col. Thompson was a hero but he was also a deeply flawed hero,” Cipullo said, adding, “We’re all like that.”
All four actors appear in both acts. “You can be watching a conversation, then either their younger or older selves takes their place in the conversation,” Havey said. It’s “all woven together in an intricate manner.”
Edquist, of Washington, D.C., is a member of the Singing Sergeants, the official chorus for the U.S. Air Force. In 2014, he won the international Lotte Lenya Competition at Eastman School of Music. “He’s an incredible actor (and singer). … He’s a real stage monster,” Cipullo said.
The other actors are members of Finger Lakes Opera’s Young Artists Program. Brock Tjosvold, an assistant professor at Eastman and the company’s music director, will conduct local musicians in the orchestra.
Cipullo has participated in other companies’ panel discussions after “Glory Denied” performances. Some veterans have talked about their experiences, astonishing their wives, who had never heard those stories before, he said.
Cipullo said men and women often react differently to the opera, particularly to Alyce Thompson’s actions. “Men often think, ‘What a horrible woman,’” while women often think, ‘I could have done that too.’”
“She wanted to try to give her kids a normal life and a father figure. I think she was a victim of the circumstance,” Havey said. “It’s not just the service member who faces all the challenges, it’s the family that faces it as well. They have to live with that tension or fear every day.”
Includes reporting by Des Moines Register staff writer Teresa Kay Albertson and Louisville Courier-Journal staff writer Savannah Eadens.
If you go
What: Finger Lakes Opera production of “Glory Denied,” followed by a panel discussion
When: 2 p.m. Sunday, July 19
Where: Robert F. Panara Theatre, 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, Henrietta, part of Rochester Institute of Technology and National Technical Institute for the Deaf
Tickets: $38-$66; go to https://ci.ovationtix.com/37035
Finger Lakes Opera’s season: The company also will perform “Happy End” at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 23, and “The Marriage of Figaro” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9. For more information about the operas and the company, go to https://www.fingerlakesopera.org/.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Opera explores difficult lives of longest-serving POW and his family
Reporting by Laura Nichols, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Laura Nichols, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
