Opera Review: The omega glory

Tom Cipullo's 2007 opera Glory Denied, which is getting its local premiere through August 24th at Union Avenue Opera, is a difficult piece to watch. That's not because of flaws in the work itself (although it does have a few) and certainly not because the performances of the cast and the orchestra are anything less than perfect.

L-R: David Walton, Peter Kendall Clark
Photo by Dan Donovan

No, Glory Denied is hard to watch because it does such a compelling job of presenting the true story of Col. Floyd James Thompson, the Green Beret whose nine-year ordeal as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese made him the longest held prisoner of war in US history. Subjected to torture (or, as we say in this country, "enhanced interrogation") by his captors, Thompson was eventually returned to the USA, only to find both the country and his life drastically changed.

We see how the seismic shifts in American culture between 1965 and 1973 have left him baffled and angry. Worse yet, his wife Alyce has, after years of vague, content-free letters from the Pentagon, decided to move on with her life and start a new family. "I want what I left," he cries at one point-an impossible desire. An attempt at reconciliation fails, and Thompson is finally left a broken man.

The cast of Glory Denied
Photo by Dan Donovan

Based on the book by Tom Philpott, Mr. Cipullo's libretto sticks closely to things the real-life characters actually said, along with actual documents like letters from the Pentagon, press releases, and even excerpts from the peace agreement that ended the Vietnam War. That gritty realism means that there are no obvious heroes or villains in Glory Denied and no easy answers to the questions the opera raises.

Running around 110 minutes, including intermission, Glory Denied whips back and forth through time and uses an impressive variety of musical styles. There are only four characters: Young Thompson, Old Thompson, Young Alyce, and Old Alyce, although the singers playing them sometimes take on other characters as well.

L-R: Peter Kendall Clark, David Walton,
Karina Brazas, Gina Galati
Photo by Dan Donovan

The kaleidoscopic first act, filled with hard dissonance and complex four-part harmony, details Thompson's abuse at the hands of his captors juxtaposed against Young Alice's sweetly banal letters of home life and Old Alyce's increasingly bitter exchanges with the military. The second act, in contrast, sounds more conventional, with clearly delineated musical numbers offering equally clear cues for applause. Time is less fluid and scenes more conventionally structured. The opera's structure, in short, changes with the narrative.

All this sounds like a real challenge to perform. The wide vocal ranges of the roles and constantly shifting meters of the score would seem to require heroic levels of concentration from the performers-a feeling reinforced by comments by the cast at a post-show talkback on opening night. Fortunately, Union Avenue has a quartet of singers who are more than up to those demands.

David Walton, Karina Brazas
Photo by Dan Donovan

Peter Kendall Clark's Old Thompson is an astonishing achievement. His character goes through Hell, and Mr. Thompson portrays it all with impressive authenticity. "Welcome home," the second-act number in which he reels off an exhaustive list of all the changes in his world, had the staccato aggression of tracer bullets. Most impressive of all, though, was the final scene in which Thompson, forced into retirement by a stroke, wanders around the stage bewildered, drunk, and fuming with resentment over the lack of recognition for his ordeal. Mr. Clark made the character's pain uncomfortably real.

Kudos as well to St. Louis's own Gina Galati as Old Alyce. The lyrical Act II aria "After you hear me out," in which Alyce tries to make Old Thompson understand the difficult changes in her life, was beautifully sung and, like the rest of Ms. Galati's performance, convincingly acted. The character has to make some hard choices, and Ms. Galati insured that the cost of those choices was plain.

As Young Thompson, David Walton's contorted posture in Act I compellingly showed the character's physical torment. His powerfully sung litany of torture contrasted sharply with the sweetly foolish letters from home sung so clearly by Karina Bazas as Young Alice. Together, they were a poignant reminder of what their older selves had lost.

L-R: Peter Kendall Clark, David Walton,
Karina Brazas, Gina Galati
Photo by Dan Donovan

Glory Denied is scored for a small orchestra-nine players in this case. That means every one of the musicians must have the kind of virtuosity and close communication of chamber players. Under Scott Schoonover's expert direction, the small band gave a faultless account of this difficult and mercurial music on opening night. I was especially taken with work of cellist Marcia Irwin and pianist Nancy Mayo in the second-act mini-concerto that underscores a slide show of images from the lives of the Thompsons, along with documentary images from the war.

Director Dean Anthony deserves praise as well for his imaginative staging, in which the playing space becomes more cluttered with documents as the lives of the characters spiral out of control.

That said, Glory Denied ultimately fails as drama for me, even as it succeeds as documentary theatre. It powerfully illustrates the hard choices faced by returning POWs and returning veterans in general, but otherwise has no clear point of view and offers nothing much beyond recognition of that grim reality.

Peter Kendall Clark
Photo by Dan Donovan

Glory Denied is currently one of the most frequently performed American 20th-century operas, but I'm not sure how long its shelf life will be. It captures a moment in American history with great clarity, but some of the historical and cultural references of that moment are already fading. Old Thompson's obsession over not getting a POW bracelet, for example, had to be explained for one younger audience member during the talkback session. Without a broader perspective, the opera risks becoming yesterday's news.

Still, it's worth seeing, if only for the sheer brilliance of the performances and high quality of the craftsmanship of its construction. Glory Denied continues at Union Avenue Opera through Saturday, August 24th, at the Union Avenue Christian Church in the Central West End. It concludes what has been a exceptional 25th anniversary season; I hope there will be many more.