THE MET: LIVE IN HD SEASON 10 – JEANINE TESORIS’ “GROUNDED”

PRESENTED BY:

The Cultural Center of the Philippines

with the Metropolitan Opera of New York,

the Filipinas Opera Society Foundation, Inc., and

Ayala Malls Cinemas

DATE/ TIME/ VENUE:

March 4, 2025 | 5:30 PM

CCP @ Ayala Malls Cinemas

Glorietta 4, Cinema 1, Makati City

DESCRIPTION:

Two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera Grounded, commissioned by the Met and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play, had highly anticipated company premiere in October 2024. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, one of opera’s most compelling young stars, headlines in the tour-de-force role of Jess, a 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. As she adjusts to this new way of doing battle, she struggles under the pressure to be the perfect soldier, the perfect wife, and the perfect mother all at the same time. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, leading a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as the Wyoming rancher who sweeps Jess off her feet. Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging, using a vast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone’s predatory view from high above.

The Met: Live in HD Season 10 is a series of screenings of the latest performances by the Metropolitan Opera of New York, delivered in high-definition video and Dolby Surround Sound.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Ticket Price:

Php 350 – Regular Price

Php 100 – Students

Visit the ticket booth or book your tickets at www.sureseats.com.

SYNOPSIS:

“Grounded” by Jeanine Tesori

Libretto by George Brant, based on his play Grounded

World premiere: Washington National Opera, 2023

Estimated Running Time: 2 hrs 20 min

ACT I

Jess is an ace F-16 fighter pilot serving in Iraq who loves what she does, loves being part of a squadron of (male) flyers, and loves soaring in what she calls “the Blue.”

While on leave in Wyoming, she meets Eric, a rancher, and the two make an unexpected connection on their one night together. This results in an equally unexpected pregnancy and ultimately, marriage.

Jess stays home for five years to raise their daughter, Sam, but misses the Blue. When she returns to the Air Force, her commanding officer tells her she has a new assignment: operating a Reaper—a missile-carrying drone—from a remote base outside of Las Vegas. At first, she resists being relegated to the “Chair Force,” but the fact that she’ll be able to return home to Eric and Sam every night convinces her to take the assignment. She takes her place in an air-conditioned trailer next to a Sensor—an incongruously boyish 19-year-old gamer—who operates the drone’s multiple cameras and introduces her to the Kill Chain, a group of off-site strategic advisors who direct Jess’s actions through her headset. As she becomes acclimated to her new life, Jess discovers she can still experience some of the excitement and satisfaction she once felt when actually flying.

ACT II

The 12-hour, seven-days-a-week shifts are grueling for Jess. Long periods of staring at the video monitor to track a subject or detect a threat alternate with sudden action and split-second moral decisions involving lives on the ground—lives that she is accustomed to flying away from. Witnessing the human toll of her missile strikes has a shattering emotional and psychological effect on Jess, and she begins to dissociate, her psyche splitting to reveal an alternate self who can hold the trauma wrought by her actions. The stress also begins to affect her relationship with Eric, who has taken a job working the late shift at a casino.

When Jess is assigned to track and eliminate a highly placed enemy target known as the Serpent, she becomes obsessed with her prey, who drives incessantly through the desert, never leaving his car, thus preventing him from being positively identified and eliminated.

As Jess’s fixation on taking out the Serpent overtakes her, she becomes unable to focus on her home and family. Eric tries to help Jess shake off the strain of the job with a ritual he’s learned at the casino, but she is beyond such measures. When Jess comes home late one night in a manic state, she and Eric argue, and Jess withdraws, but he manages to momentarily pull her back from the brink. Soon, however, Jess finds herself back in the trailer. She is thrilled when she tracks the Serpent to his home, and when he finally reveals himself, stepping from his car to wave his daughter away, Jess is instructed to take the shot.

Jess is on the verge of firing her missiles, but suddenly focuses on the Serpent’s daughter—a girl near Sam’s age. In an instant, she realizes she cannot be the agent of this girl’s death. She pulls the drone off course and crashes it. Jess defiantly ignores the outraged voices on her headset but quickly discovers that another drone has been shadowing her, and she watches in horror as its Hellfire missiles obliterate the Serpent and his daughter.

Jess is alone, entombed in a cell. She has been court-martialed, but her imprisonment has brought her a degree of clarity and release—and freedom.