Soldier Songs FIlm
Director Johnathan McCullough’s production of Soldier Songs is available to stream on the Opera Philadelphia Channel. The live production is available to rent and is capable of being presented in a COVID safe way. Please contact Opera Philadelphia Administration for details.
WATCH THE FILM HERE:
A pacesetter for cinematic opera
“To my eye, this production of “Soldier Songs” ranks with some of the best vintage work in filmed opera. (Some exemplary models include the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Salome,” starring Teresa Stratas, and the Hamburg State Opera’s “Wozzeck,” starring Toni Blankenheim.) While not as exalted as a movie, it also belongs in a conversation with adaptations of operas by noted film directors, such as Powell and Pressburger’s “The Tales of Hoffmann” and Ingmar Bergman’s “The Magic Flute.” Opera companies have rarely explored this visual realm, outside of telecasts. On one level, that’s understandable, given their need to sell the uniqueness of a live experience. But the success of film directors like Franco Zeffirelli and Anthony Minghella on operatic stages also suggests that there’s a profitable aesthetic dialogue to be had.”
The fearless ‘Soldier Songs’ is a standout achievement among COVID-19-era shows.
The lush, rural Brandywine landscape becomes a heartbreaking counterpoint to the tortured protagonist played by baritone Johnathan McCullough, who directed the production and co-wrote the screenplay with the noted director James Darrah.
The opera’s instrumental portion was prerecorded under Opera Philadelphia music director Corrado Rovaris — somewhat less operatically than some recordings, perhaps not to compete heavily with the video element. McCullough’s vocals are delivered on camera, avoiding the kind of lip-synching lapses that can break the spell of a film. His fine, flexible, diction-friendly baritone voice has an extraordinary way of communicating intimate emotions to the camera without playing directly into it.
Still in his late 20s, McCullough emerged from the Curtis Institute as a promising vocal talent (heard in 2019 in Opera Philadelphia’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Far more significant, though, is his fearless theatrical vision.
War’s Wounds and Love’s Arrow
“At the center of the film, Mr. McCullough proves gifted as both actor and singer. His dead-eyed expression a chilling contrast to the anguish in his voice and the endless torment caused by the experience of war that the audience, thanks to his directorial skills, can feel too.”
Composer and Librettist: David T. Little
Director: Johnathan McCullough
Soldier: Johnathan McCullough
Screenplay: James Darrah and Johnathan McCullough
Music Director: Corrado Rovaris
Producers: David T. Little, James Darrah, Lewis Pesacov, and John Toia
Executive Producers: David Devan and David Levy
Director of Photography: Phil Bradshaw
Editor: Vic Carreno
Associate Producer: Anderson Nunnelley
Costume Designer: Millie Hiibel
Consulting Producer: Chayne Gregg
1st Assistant Director: Lisa Anderson
Recording Engineers: Garth MacAleavy, and John D. Gooch
Mastering: Lurssen Mastering- Reuben Cohen
“Opera Philadelphia’s fearless Soldier Songs is a standout among COVID-19-era shows.”
-The Philadelphia Inquirer
“ When opera and cinema are combined with this much sense of detail and commitment, they feel inseparable. “Soldier Songs” will no doubt live on in other live incarnations, but this film might prove its most memorable manifestation, the one all others reference.”
-Operawire
“McCullough’s arresting adaptation…vividly amplifies and extends the impact of Little’s words and music.”
-The New Yorker
“The company’s latest release is a modern piece that could easily be sold as a rock opera or concept album, combining sometimes discordant, minimalist music composed by David T. Little in 2006 with a stellar performance from shaggy, bearded Johnathan McCullough, who also directs. The baritone’s vocal range is impressive, as is its power, which is wholly appropriate given such dark and violent themes and boy can he act.”
-British Theatre Guide
McCullough’s baritone, lyrical but firm, suits the score and its dramatic complexity. [His] large, expressive eyes hint at tension roiling beneath the surface. Perhaps most impressively, he never comes across like a stage performer awkwardly dropped into an unfamiliar medium. His performance is perfectly scaled to the small screen.”
-Bachtrack
“Curtis grad McCullough—indomitably expressive, continually focused, and deeply moving—sang live during filming to a recorded track of an Opera Philadelphia orchestra septet (conducted by Corrado Rovaris). Impressively, McCullough also directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with James Darrah, a producer (with John Toia) of this disturbingly luminous film.”
-Broadstreet Review
“ [Soldier Songs] features a sole singer-actor, the extraordinary Johnathan McCullough—with the scale, grandeur and theatricality the medium can deliver. It’s a gut-punch metaphor that echoes throughout Soldier Songs. Within minutes, though, he emerges as vulnerably, heartbreakingly mortal.”
-Parterre Box
