Reviews: What Did Critics Think of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded at the Metropolitan Opera?
Jeanine Tesori and George Brant’s opera, directed by Michael Mayer, opened the company’s 2024-25 season September 23.
Emily D’Angelo and Kyle Miller in Grounded at the Metropolitan Opera
Ken Howard / Met Opera
The Metropolitan Opera’s 2024-25 season opened September 23 with the company premiere of Jeanine Tesori and George Brant’s Grounded—and the reviews are in!
Based on Brant’s play of the same name, Grounded tells the story of Jess, a fighter pilot who is grounded due to an unexpected pregnancy, and subsequently reassigned to piloting lethal drones remotely. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo stars as Jess, the role played by Anne Hathaway in the play’s 2015 Off-Broadway production at The Public Theater.
Read the reviews here.
Bachtrack (Kevin W. Ng)
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Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
The cast, expanded from the original one-woman play, also features tenor Ben Bliss as Eric, baritone Kyle Miller as the Sensor, and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as the Commander. Soprano Ellie Dehn plays “Also Jess,” a character who embodies Jess’ dissociated self. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.
Mayer’s production features sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Tom Broecker, lighting by Kevin Adams, projections by Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras, sound by Palmer Hefferan, and choreography by David Neumann. Paul Cremo serves as dramaturg.
The opening week of the season also features revivals of Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Puccini’s Tosca. Later in the season will be the Met premieres of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, and John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra, as well as new productions of Richard Strauss’ Salome and Verdi’s Aida, the latter directed by Mayer.
Performances of Grounded run through October 19. For more information, visit MetOpera.org.
