FULL For Whom the Bell Tolls (Grundstrom) Washington DC 2023 Alan Naylor, Eliza Bonet, Kelly Curtin, Sean Pflueger
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls
- Composer: Grundstrom Brian Wilbur
- Libretto: David M. Dorsen based on Hemingway
- Venue & Opera Company: Church of the Epiphany, Washington DC
- Recorded: November 20, 2022
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Alan Naylor, Eliza Bonet, Kelly Curtin, Sean Pflueger, Danielle Bendjy, Suzanne S. Chadwick, Cosmo Clemens, Aurelio Dominguez, Alfonzo Meza, Derrick Miller, Jose Sacín, Lori Şen, Daniel Sherwood, Antony Zwerdling
- Conductor: Jeffrey Sean Dokken
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Brian Wilbur Grundstrom
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Hemingway was a larger-than-life personality. In his popular novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, we can see some of the author in the character of Robert Jordan, an idealistic young American in 1930’s Spain, who accepts a doomed mission to blow up a bridge.
Through his lyrical melody-driven music, Brian Wilbur Grundstrom brings out the emotional depths of the characters and new insight to this Hemingway classic. Using the full versatility of opera, David Dorsen’s libretto and Grundstrom’s music explore Hemingway’s themes of trust, loyalty, honor, love, betrayal, fear, pain, loss, and sacrifice, while adding modern insight, as Robert Jordan’s notions of honor clash with the reality of civil war.
The opera takes place in the mountains of northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.