The LA Times just posted its review of "Heart of a Soldier", the San Francisco Opera's newly commissioned opera about the life of Rick Rescorla which premiered last night.
You may not remember his name, but Rescorla was the head of Morgan Stanley's security at the World Trade Center on 9/11 who famously overruled the Port Authority's suggestion that everyone remain in the South Tower. Because of his decision — and previous planning, insistence on semi-annual evacuation drills, etc. — only a handfull of Morgan Stanley's thousands of workers in the South Tower were lost. Unfortunately, he was included in that handful.
Murdoc Online posted about Rescorla yesterday.
The LA Times review was kindly worded, but reading between the lines, the opera is only OK.
Let's give the SFO credit for trying, though. Opera companies have gotten good at pretending they are moving the art form forward by producing avante garde productions of the same old classics. All too few are taking chances with new material. Perhaps more importantly, too few have found interesting contemporary topics for new material.
"Heart of a Soldier", at least, has an epic story line — Vietnam Vet heroically saves thousands on 9/11. I, for one, have my fingers crossed that (i) the LA Times is being a little hard on the production or (ii) at the very least, SFO continues to look for ways to move the art form forward.
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