Opera Birmingham goes beyond classics with edgy Vietnam drama

Keith Wolfe, Opera Birmingham general director, told Iron City Ink that when “most people think of opera, they think of the classics.”

And the company’s produced many classics over its 60-year history, including “Carmen” and “Tosca.” However, there are contemporary operas with “more relevant stories that can address social issues,” Wolfe said.

Opera Birmingham is staging one of those newer, edgier works soon at an unusual local venue.

The company will present “Glory Denied” — a gripping, fact-based story of the Vietnam War and its aftermath — at the Southern Museum of Flight on Friday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 27, at 2:30 p.m.

An intimate chamber opera, “Glory Denied” tells the story of U.S. Army Col. Jim Thompson — America’s longest-held P.O.W. — who spent nine years in Communist prison camps during the war. It depicts his captivity but also his difficult return to his wife and kids and to an America that changed radically in his absence.

Baritone Corey McKern, an Opera Birmingham favorite, will portray Thompson as an older man, while tenor John Riesen plays the younger Thompson.

Acclaimed soprano Caroline Worra — in her Opera Birmingham debut — will portray Thompson’s wife,  Alyce, as an older woman. Soprano and Alabama native Kathleen Buccleugh plays the younger Alyce.

John Hoomes, who directed the company’s “La Boheme” in 2015, will direct.

“Glory Denied,” which premiered in 2007, was written by composer Tom Cipullo. The libretto was written by Cipullo and Tom Philpott, whose biography of Thompson is the opera’s source material.

Wolfe first encountered “Glory Denied” in 2013 while working at the Fort Worth Opera. “The story is so gripping, and Tom’s music heightens the emotion to a new level,” he said. The opera shows “everyday people in extraordinary circumstances and how they’re changed forever,” he said, referring to Thompson and his family.

Wolfe is excited about presenting “Glory Denied” among the period airplanes in the SMF main gallery. 

“It will be a unique, immersive experience,” he said.

Wolfe suspects that the Birmingham production of “Glory Denied” — like the Fort Worth production — will elicit strong emotional reactions from attendees, especially veterans or people from military families. 

The opera will feature a pre-performance chat with Hoomes and Wolfe one hour before each show.

Tickets are $30 and are available at operabirmingham.org or by calling 322-6737.