Annapolis Opera production of ‘Glory Denied’ tells story of America’s longest-held POW

The late Col. Jim Thompson, America’s longest-held prisoner of war, was a captive for nearly nine years during the Vietnam War.

Thompson broke his back when his plane crashed in South Vietnam on March 26, 1964. For most of the next decade, he was imprisoned in a 2-by-5-foot cage too small for him to sit or lie down. He was beaten, choked, and hanged by his thumbs.

He kept himself alive by thinking of his wife, Alyce, his three daughters and unborn child. In his mind’s eye, he designed the dream home his family would live in someday. He attempted to escape several times but was recaptured.

But Alyce Thompson believed her husband was dead and was trying to raise four young children as a single parent. By the time Thompson was finally released in 1973, she had moved on. So had Thompson’s country.

The Annapolis Opera, which was founded the year before Thompson returned home, will re-enact the colonel’s ordeal this weekend in two performances of “Glory Denied,” the 2007 opera written by Tom Cipullo based on a book of the same title by Tom Philpott.

Opera conductor Craig Kier said “Glory Denied” has special resonance for residents in Maryland’s capital city, home of the U.S. Naval Academy.

“It’s hard to walk through Annapolis without meeting someone connected to the military,” he said, noting that the city is a short drive from Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“Too often, we find a way to simplify the narrative,” Kier said. “This story does a pretty good job of exploring the complexities of that time.”

“Glory Denied” is comprised of four actors portraying two people: Tenor Matthew Hill has the role of the young Jim Thompson who survived unimaginable isolation and bouts of torture, while baritone Craig Irvin is cast as the veteran who turned to alcohol to cope with a changed nation he didn’t understand.

Soprano Öznur Tülüoglu depicts the pregnant young Alyce, who gave birth to her fourth child — a son — the day after learning her husband was missing in action, while soprano Colleen Daly plays older Alyce, who puts her heart on hold to do what she believes is right.

The opera moves back and forward in time, interspersing Thompson’s return to the U.S. with the years of his imprisonment.

The score, which will be performed by a nine-member orchestra, reflects the colonel’s profound bewilderment. He left the cheerful optimism of the 1960s America of Mickey Mantle and Sandra Dee and returned to a nation torn asunder by the hippie movement, anti-war protests and the feminist revolution.

“John Glenn,” the older Thompson sings in a furious, alcohol-soaked aria: “Neil Armstrong, astronauts, moon shots. Heiress robber Patty Hearst, soldiers coming home get cursed. … My Lai, kids get high, men can cry. Wives can lie.”

Irvin, who portrays the older Jim Thompson, said that he was struck by composer Cipullo’s fair-mindedness. “The opera doesn’t make him out to be a flawless hero,” he said. “It doesn’t make Alyce out to be the villain. They both make mistakes that hurt each other and themselves.”

The libretto makes the point that this young wife was all but abandoned by the U.S. military and American public during her husband’s captivity.

“He went through hell,” Daly sings as older Alyce, “but so did I. … Nine years. The phone calls in the middle of the night. “We’re praying for you. That’s how they would begin, and then they’d change. “Your husband got what he deserved. We shouldn’t be in Vietnam at all.”

Hill, who in addition to his opera career is also a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, said that the music reflects the characters’ psychological upheaval.

“The music is very challenging to sing,” he said. “It’s very modern, intentionally jagged and angular, full of struggle and turmoil.”

Irwin said that the characters’ runaway emotions are mirrored by the wildly fluctuating time signatures.

“There’s no page in the score where the time signature doesn’t change three times,” he said. “On some pages, the time signature changes every measure for 15 or 20 measures in a row.”

The last scene in particular, where Old Jim Thompson is on stage by himself, is so difficult that composer Cipullo wrote that the listed rhythms and pitches “are merely suggestions.”

Opera officials are hoping the conversations that begin on stage won’t end there. Cipullo will participate in pre-performance discussions in which he will discuss how he adopted Thompson’s story musically. Following both shows, a panel discussion will be held with Cipullo, Philpott and stage director Dean Anthony. It will be moderated by Jan Scruggs, Founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

The Annapolis Opera also is donating 10% of the proceeds from both performances to Hospice of the Chesapeake, which provides end-of-life care for military veterans.

“We need as a nation to take better care of our soldiers,” said Kathy Swekel, the opera’s general director. “We ask them to do extraordinarily difficult things for us. They’re human, and they deserve care while they process and recover.”

If You Go

“Glory Denied” will be performed 3 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Maryland Hall, 801 Chase St., Annapolis. Tickets cost $28 to $100. For details, call 410-267-0087 or visit annapolisopera.org.