On March 16, 1968, in South Vietnam, US Army pilot Hugh Thompson, Jr. nosed his helicopter down three times into the carnage at My Lai in an attempt to stop the civilian massacre.
In this fevered character study of the once-vilified, now-lionized soldier, composer Jonathan Berger enlists Southeast Asian zithers and xylophones and an amplified Kronos Quartet to consider the line between duty and conscience.
Tenor Rinde Eckert portrays the latter-day Thompson, who—in a manic barrage of soldier speak, gritty poetry, and hallucinatory recollection—reflects on a decisive moment when breaking rank in the name of human decency forever changed the public perception of a war.
Part of the 2017 Next Wave Festival
