The simulcast of "Grounded," a contemporary opera commissioned through the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater's New Works Program, is the next offering from The Met: Live in HD. It can be seen at Guild Hall on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Composed by Jeanine Tesori, said to be the most prolific female composer in American theater history, "Grounded" stars Emily D'Angelo, a Canadian mezzo-soprano, as Jess, a successful F-16 combat pilot whose unplanned pregnancy necessitates her reassignment to Las Vegas as a Reaper drone operator.
Adapted from a play by George Brant, who also wrote the libretto, the opera engages with issues created by 21st-century warfare, specifically the psychological and emotional tolls of remote technology, and the role of women in the armed forces.
Ben Bliss, an American tenor, co-stars as Eric, a Wyoming rancher Jess meets while on leave from combat in Iraq. They sleep together, fall in love, and after returning to duty she discovers she is pregnant.
Michael Mayer's staging, using a vast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives on the action, including the drone's view from high above. Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the Met's musical director, is at the podium.
Tickets are $30, $27 for members.
The National Theater Live series will return to Guild Hall next Thursday at 7 p.m. with a screening of "Hamlet," starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Prince of Denmark in a production filmed live at the Barbican Centre in London in 2015.
When tickets for the production went on sale in August 2014, it became officially the fastest-selling ticket in London theater history, due in large part to Mr. Cumberbatch's popularity. Of his handling of Hamlet's monologues, Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote, "In those, he is superb, meticulously tracing lines of thought into revelations that stun, elate, exasperate and sadden him. There's not a single soliloquy that doesn't shed fresh insight into how Hamlet thinks. And Lyndsey Turner stages them beautifully . . . . "
Subsequent productions include "Prima Facie," which premiered in 2022 at London's Harold Pinter Theatre before moving to Broadway. Jodie Comer won a Laurence Olivier best actress award for the London production, and a best actress Tony for the Broadway show. "Prima Facie" will be shown on Nov. 15.
