The Mary D. Fisher Theatre is honored to be the home for the Met Live Opera programs for the 2024-2025 season, presented by the Sedona International Film Festival.

The season continues with Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded” live via simulcast on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. and the encore presentation on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 3 p.m.

Plan to come early as Russell Fox will lead a pre-opera talk one hour before the LIVE production on Saturday.

Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera “Grounded” premieres at the Metropolitan Opera, wrestling with often-overlooked issues created by 21st-century warmaking: the ethical conflicts created by the use of modern military technology and the psychological and emotional toll supposedly safe remote technology takes on our servicepersons.

Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo stars as the hot-shot fighter pilot whose unplanned pregnancy takes her out of the cockpit and lands her in Las Vegas, operating a Reaper drone halfway around the world. American tenor Ben Bliss costars as the Wyoming rancher Eric in a production by Michael Mayer that brings this story to life in a high-tech staging which presents a variety of perspectives on the action. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium to conduct Tesori’s kaleidoscopic opera.

ACT I
Jess is an ace F-16 fighter pilot. While on leave, she meets Eric, and the two make an unexpected connection. This results in an unplanned pregnancy. Jess stays home for five years to raise their daughter. When she returns to the Air Force, her commanding officer tells her that she has a new assignment: operating a drone at a base outside of Las Vegas. As she becomes acclimated to her new life, Jess discovers that she can still experience some of the excitement and satisfaction that she once felt when actually flying.

ACT II
The long shifts are grueling for Jess. She begins to dissociate, her psyche splitting to reveal an alternate self who can hold the trauma. Jess is assigned to track a highly placed enemy target known as the Serpent. As Jess’s fixation on eliminating the Serpent overtakes her, she becomes unable to focus on her home and family. She tracks the Serpent to his home, but when she focuses on his daughter, she can’t take the shot. She pulls the drone off course and crashes it, only to discover that another drone has been shadowing her and launches missiles at the Serpent and his daughter. Jess is court-martialed, but her imprisonment has brought her a degree of clarity and release—and freedom.

The 2024-2025 Met Live Opera season in Sedona is generously sponsored by Chris Fladlien and Bea Hanks.

The Met Live Opera’s “Grounded” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m. (live simulcast) with an encore on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at 3 p.m. The pre-opera talk will take place one hour before the live Saturday simulcast.

Tickets are $25 general admission, $22 for Film Festival members, and $15 for students. Tickets are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office or by calling 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona. For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.org.