F E AT U R E
STORIES OF SACRIFICE Soldier’s skills conceive of work at Arizona Opera
Based on true stories of injured soldiers, “The Rising and the Falling” tells their tales in operatic format. (Ziggy Mack/ Opera Memphis)
BY BRIDGETTE M. REDMAN Sound of Freedom Contributing Writer
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gt. Ben Hilget’s path to the military might seem unusual to some, but it led to the creation of a work of art designed to help civilians understand the life of a soldier and the sacrifices that are made. “The Falling and the Rising” is an opera centered around an injured soldier who is in a medically induced coma after she was injured by a roadside IED. As she goes in and out of a dream-like state, she experiences the stories of other soldiers. The stories are based on real experiences injured soldiers shared at Walter Reed National Medical Center, soldiers who were part of what was then called the Warrior Transition Brigade. The opera, which premiered in New York in 2018, is coming to Arizona Opera Friday, October 14, to Sunday, October 16, in Phoenix and Saturday, October 22, and Sunday, October 23, in Tucson. Before enlisting in the Army, Hilget was an accomplished opera singer who had toured the
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world. He had done musical theater in high school, but opera became his passion. “I loved different cultures,” Hilget says. “It was just this way of stepping into this fabulous grand world where you are mixing great literature, great stories, great art — visual art, theater and music. There’s just something about the unamplified human voice carrying over an orchestra and filling an opera house.” He even confesses that part of him still Projections help set the scene for the misses the opera world. opera performers There was something in “The Falling and special about traveling the Rising” about inthe world and always jured soldiers. (Ziggy honing one’s craft. But Mack/Opera Memphis) he felt like he was missing something by just serving his own artistic growth. He had just returned from a tour in Germany when an earthquake hit Haiti. He wanted to vol-
Sound of Freedom | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022
unteer to help but was told that he didn’t have the skills. It was a turning point for him. When a friend of his joined the services, he was inspired. “The idea of representing something that is greater than the sum of its parts — service to your country, it really stuck with me,” Hilget says. He told his friend to let him know if there was a spot for him. “And so I found myself in basic training later that fall.” He says he hasn’t looked back, but he also hasn’t left behind his skills as an opera singer. The idea came to him to create an opera about injured soldiers. He reached out to Chicago writer and director Jerre Dye and composer Zach Redler. “The Falling and the Rising” breaks ground in its goals and its staging. There are only five characters, and projections play an important role in the production. It is filled with humor — the usual opera-going audiences might blink at the full-voiced, passionate operatic performance of such lines as “You’d better get your ass in gear.” Hilget says he was impressed with Dye and