“Fallujah” : Long Beach Opera goes to war
Long Beach Opera’s battle for Fallujah. Photo by Keith Ian Polakoff “Fallujah” (the opera, reviewed) Stepping into the Army National Guard for an opera is not quite the same as entering the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or Disney Hall, but Long Beach Opera likes to keep us on our toes (and off-balance at the same time), which thus makes this an almost ideal venue in which to witness “Fallujah,” the world premiere opera composed by Tobin Stokes and with a libretto by Heather Raffo. There are three more performances, two on Saturday and one on Sunday afternoon. The story is based on the experiences of Christian Ellis, USMC Sergeant (ret), who joined the Marines at age 19 and ended up in Fallujah, Iraq, where fierce battles were fought in 2004. Ellis was in a platoon that was ambushed. One of his best friends was killed and he himself suffered a fractured spine. He was sent home with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, A few years later, while at a retreat for soldiers suffering from PTSD, Ellis was befriended by philanthropist and filmmaker Charles Annenberg Weingarten. The latter, intrigued by the fact that Ellis had been trained as an opera singer, decided to commission an opera…
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