MARK THOMAS AS THE YOUNGER THOMSON IN GLORY DENIED. PHOTO BY LYNN LANE
Glory Denied
A chamber opera by Tom Cipullo
Based on the oral history by Tom Philpott
November 6 and 9, 2017
7:30 p.m.
1940 Air Terminal Museum — Hangar Building
8325 Travelair Road (Off Telephone Road and Airport Boulevard)
Review
“Memorable beyond belief.” —Houston Press
Presented as a part of the Veterans Songbook Project, Glory Denied is the story of an American family during the turbulent Vietnam War era. America’s longest-held prisoner of war returns home to a country he no longer recognizes. This intimate chamber opera chronicles Colonel Jim Thompson’s suffering in the jungles of southeast Asia through to the personal struggles that followed his liberation and repatriation.
“From hope to despair, from love to hatred to forgiveness, the dramatic tension was relentless.” —Opera News
“…a powerfully realistic thriller and an unabashedly honest commentary on the America of the 1960s and ’70s.”—Fort Worth Weekly
Houston Public Radio’s Houston Matters interviewed Tom Philpott, who wrote “Glory Denied”, the oral history of Thompson’s time in captivity, on which the opera is based.
Read the New York Times book review of “Glory Denied” from August 2, 2001
The Glory And Tragedy Of a P.O.W. Scorned