The Met to Stage New Opera by Fun Home Writer Jeanine Tesori
(© David Gordon)
The Metropolitan Opera has announced plans to present Fun Home composer Jeanine Tesori's opera Grounded, based on George Brant's play of the same name, and has asked Missy Mazzoli to write an opera based on George Saunders's recent novel Lincoln in the Bardo. The two projects mark the first time the company has commissioned work from women, according to the New York Times.
Brant's Grounded tells the story of an ace fighter pilot whose unexpected pregnancy forces her to leave her airborne career in favor of one operating military drones from a windowless trailer. In 2015, it played at the Public Theater starring Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway and directed by Tony winner Julie Taymor.
Jeanine Tesori won the 2015 Tony for Best Original Score Written for the Theatre for Fun Home. She was also nominated for Tonys for 2002's Thoroughly Modern Millie, 2004's Caroline, or Change, and 2009's Shrek the Musical
In addition, the Met plans to collaborate with the Public Theater on a new version of Mozart's The Magic Flute that will be presented at Shakespeare in the Park's Delacorte Theater during the summer of 2020. The Public's Lear deBessonet will direct.
