Each year, recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor reconnect with each other in the Medal of Honor Celebration to honor those recipients who have passed and, among other business, engage the local community. A different host city is chosen each year for the Celebration. Knoxville hosted the annual event in 2014 and was selected again by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society to host the 2022 Celebration.
In partnership with the Celebration, Knoxville Opera’s first production of its 2022-23 season will be the local premiere of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied. This 2007 work is based on the book by Tom Philpott that relates the true story of America’s longest-held prisoner of war, Colonel Floyd James Thompson.
Thompson was a prisoner of war in the jungles of southeast Asia during the Vietnam War for nine years after his plane was shot down in 1964. The opera deals not only with the brutal conditions of his captivity, but equally important, the personal and societal struggles he faced upon his release and return to the U.S. The story is told through younger and older versions of Thompson and his wife, Alyce. Singers are Craig Irvin, Caroline Worra, John Riesen, and Emma Marhefka. Worra has sung the role of the older Alyce in a number of noteworthy productions, including those of the Berkshire Opera Festival, Roanoke Opera, and Fort Worth Opera Festival and its recording on Albany Records.
This two-performance Knoxville Opera production is being staged by its new producing director, Dean Anthony; the chamber orchestra consisting of KSO musicians is conducted by Steven White.
KO finds itself in a new and different venue for this production—the James R. Cox Auditorium in UT’s Alumni Memorial Building.
Glory Denied – Knoxville Opera
James R. Cox Auditorium in UT’s Alumni Memorial Building on the UT Campus
Friday, September 9, at 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 11, at 2:30 PM
Tickets and Information
