Heart of a Soldier 2, San Francisco Opera, Sept. 27 2011

Back to the San Francisco Opera House for a rerun of Heart of a Soldier, figuring that it’s unlikely that I’ll get another chance to see it, and hoping that I would get more out of it a second time around—which usually happens with new music.

To the previous report, let me note a scene I had omitted: after the firefight in the Vietnamese jungle that ends with Rick disobeying orders and rushing off to rescue Dan Hill’s platoon, there was a short scene in which Dan calls Rick a hero. Rick brushes off the compliment with “All the real heroes are dead,” a presentiment of his heroic actions on 9/11. The scene is set simply, with Dan lounging in the midst of a pile of 55-gallon oil drums. In Act 2, scenes with Rick and Dan are set on a platform that slides out from the left, with a simple concrete bench. Shortly after Rick meets Susan, jogging around the slide-out platform with the fire hydrant, they have coffee sitting on patio furniture that has replaced the fire hydrant.

I got a bit more musically out of this second performance. Specifically, in Viet Nam, where Rick is instructing his soldiers to sing, the “Sing Sierra, sing India, sing November, sing Golf” (that is, sing S-I-N-G) chorus was very effective. I paid more attention to Rick’s act 2 aria this time; it’s about military brotherhood.

It was worth going to a second time—a beta.