Review: Stunning ‘Soldier Songs’ a visceral war diary

Nov. 12, 2016 9:45 AM PT

San Diego Opera stepped boldly into its future Friday with the West Coast premiere of “Soldier Songs,” a dark, contemporary opera about the scarring psychological impact of war that couldn’t be more timely.

Composer David T. Little’s opera opened on Veterans Day, in a time of global war, and three days after a presidential election that split the nation. The visually stunning and eerily unsettling song cycle for solo baritone, as well as an eye-opening discussion with local veterans that followed, reflect the current dichotomy in this country as well as man’s enduring love/hate relationship with war.

“Soldier Songs,” powerfully directed by Tomer Zvulun, is the first production in the company’s new Shiley Detour Series, which will present edgier, more community-centric work in smaller, alternative venues. It runs through Sunday at the Balboa Theatre, just half the size of the company’s usual home base, the 3,000-seat San Diego Civic Theatre.

A good crowd turned out for opening night, and when active-duty military and veterans were asked to stand for acknowledgment before the show, nearly a third of the ticket-holders rose to their feet — an impressive sign that the series’ new outreach effort is hitting the mark.

Little based his opera on interviews he conducted with five veterans of U.S.-involved conflicts, from World War II to Afghanistan. Their words can be heard in overlapping recordings at the beginning and end of the 55-minute piece and they inspired the lyrics in the show’s 11 songs. “Soldier Songs” is divided into three parts. There’s the boy and teen, obsessed with G.I. Joe dolls, war and first-person shooter video games. Then a harrowing section of the young man at war, initially gung-ho, then frightened. And finally the aging veteran, shattered by post-traumatic stress and grieving those lost in battle.

Little’s score, conducted Steven Schick with seven San Diego Symphony musicians, is a propulsive mix of rock, percussion, modern and classical forms, overlaid with electronic pulsing, simulated explosions and voice recordings that act as a Greek chorus. “Hollywood Ending,” a visceral description of the carnage after a car bomb explosion, jangles the nerves with skittering crescendos of piano and percussion notes. “Two Marines,” a grieving father’s dirge for his lost son, is sweet, slow and melodic with the mournful cry of a violin.

Baritone David Adam Moore is superb both vocally and theatrically as the Soldier. Actors Ryan Singer and Dan Denison play the boy and elder man. Moore’s muscular singing is punctuated with animal-like moans that grow to an open-mouthed roar by the end, and he moves and acts every inch the hunting, hunted and haunted soldier. Moore also designed the show’s engrossing projections, which create a powerful visual landscape on Victoria “Vita” Tzykun’s multilevel building blocks set.

The projections vibrate with the percussion of bombs, visually crumble beneath Moore’s feet, mix video games with real-life war footage and turn a rectangular box into a flag-draped coffin. Veterans’ words palpably flicker and dissolve on the walls and across Moore’s body, including “war,” “killing” and “alive.” And Maxwell Bowman’s stark, strobing lighting, particularly in the bomb-dropping song “Steel Rain,” turns the entire theater into a war zone.

After each performance, local veterans share their stories in a half-hour panel discussion. On Friday, a Navy SEAL, two Marines and a Navy corpsman with 68 years of combined service said the opera brought back the sights, sounds and even smells of war. And, interestingly, after describing the damage combat did to their psyches, health and relationships, they still said they’d do it all over again.

In a partnership with KPBS, the opera will present “Soldier Songs” in its first-ever live opera telecast at 7 p.m. Saturday. The performance will be shown in San Diego on Cable 11, Cox 1011, Time Warner 15-1 and channel 15 (UHF digital channel 30).