The Met: Live in HD to Continue with Jeanine Tesori's GROUNDED

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2024–25 Live in HD season will continue with two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist George Brant’s new opera, Grounded, on Saturday, October 19, at 1PM ET. Tesori’s company debut marks the first of two operas by female composers to be commissioned by the Met; Lincoln in the Bardo by Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek will premiere in the 2026–27 season.
 
This multi-character adaptation of George Brant’s acclaimed play wrestles with the ethical quandaries and psychological toll of 21st-century warfare. Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, for whom Tesori wrote the leading role, portrays Jess, an F-16 fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy forces her into a new assignment, operating a Reaper drone from a trailer in Nevada. As she struggles to balance life as a wife to Eric and mother to their daughter, Sam, she fights to maintain her sanity and moral compass at work where she is called to rain down death remotely.
 
The Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin—whose contract was recently extended through the 2029–30 season—conducts the Met premiere of Tesori’s newly revised score and leads a cast that also features tenor Ben Bliss as Eric, the Wyoming rancher who becomes Jess’s husband; soprano Ellie Dehn as Also Jess; baritone Kyle Miller in his Met debut as the Sensor; and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as the Commander.
 
“This project began ten years ago when I was approached to write an opera for the Met, a company I’ve loved for decades. I am honored and incredibly grateful to tell this story with librettist George Brant and with these wonderful artists. My hope is that I can entice audiences who love Broadway or musical theater to come uptown a few blocks to the Met and fall in love with opera too,” said Tesori.
 
Director Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging, using a vast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives, immersing audiences in the action. The creative team also includes set designer Mimi Lien, Costume Designer Tom Broecker, co-projection designers Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras, sound designer Palmer Hefferan, and choreographer David Neumann—all making their Met debuts. Lighting designer Kevin Adams returns to the company, along with dramaturg Paul Cremo, who is also director of the Met’s Opera Commissioning Program.
 
Gary Halvorson will direct the Live in HD presentation for cinemas, and soprano Nadine Sierra will host the transmission, sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes content and interviews during the intermission.
 
The Stars of Grounded
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Montreal, Canada
Emily D’Angelo, Jess; Toronto, Canada
Ellie Dehn, Also Jess; Anoka, Minnesota
Ben Bliss, Eric; Prairie Village, Kansas
Kyle Miller, Sensor; San Francisco, California
Greer Grimsley, Commander; New Orleans, Louisiana
 

Photo credit: Ken Howard / Met Opera

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