Greensboro Opera’s ‘Glory Denied’ finds power in restraint and resonance

Christopher Hill | 17 APR 2025

During the second weekend of April 2025, Greensboro Opera mounted an admirable production of Glory Denied, a work by Tom Cipullo. Mr. Cipullo (b. 1956) is a creative artist who has chosen text-based classical music—opera especially—to address, like Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan before him, major themes and issues of his generation.

Like Mitchell and Dylan and Wagner and Menotti, Cipullo writes his own texts. Unlike Mitchell and Dylan and Wagner and Menotti, he doesn’t have a ready-made audience for the sort of Gesamtausgaben he creates. I suppose nobody starts out with such an audience, but decade by decade it gets harder and harder to find consumers open to works that reward the combination of critical thinking and critical listening. In this regard, Cipullo has exceeded both averages and expectations; your reviewer believes this is for the simple reason that his works communicate with audiences on both gut and artistic levels.

So what about the opera Glory Denied? First, it’s based on a true story, the story of a man, Jim Thompson, who was held prisoner of war longer than any other person in U.S. military history. Second, because this man endured inhumane treatment over the specific years 1964 to 1973, he returned from his extended tortures to a society that had changed more quickly than during any similar time period in U.S. history (prior to the internet). Many social norms Jim Thompson believed he was fighting for had retreated from the center to the periphery of society’s concern. He felt, as a result, a profound sense of dislocation, on top of which he also experienced the heavy hand of judgment pressing in from many quarters, even though in that era political leaders who never served in the military were not yet sneering publically at prisoners of war. Glory denied indeed.

Does this sound like a conventional opera story? Of course not. The fact that many opera companies have mounted Glory Denied shows that Tom Cipullo has found a way to tell a relevant, if depressing, story in a way that evokes positive audience responses. The production in Greensboro certainly did that. Here’s how.

First, the libretto limits itself to two characters, Jim Thompson and his wife, Alyce, but both are seen concurrently in before-and-after modalities, as younger and older people, requiring four singers on stage at once. In Greensboro all four singers were veterans of earlier productions, and all four performed with great authority, not to mention with vibrant and attractive vocal quality. Öznur Tülüoğlu (Younger Alyce) and Colleen Daly (Older Alyce) sang the same roles together in a Maryland production, and Ms. Daly’s connection with the opera goes back to the early 20-teens when she was singing Younger Alyce. John Riesen (Younger Jim) and Peter Kendall Clark (Older Jim) sang the same roles together in a Virginia production. Your reviewer found this quartet of voices even more compelling than those heard in the Texas production released on CD. Additionally, all four singers have real acting chops, the most demanding role being Peter Kendall Clark’s.

If you will indulge your reviewer in a brief aside: These singers’ careers show what life is like for those cursed with great musical talent. People like them are most often the ones who create roles in vocal works by American composers, who themselves live for the most part in a world of amateur art, that is, art for the love of art (supported by day jobs such as teaching), where any potential glory is generally of postage-stamp size. Mr. Cipullo’s glory is bigger than that, and for good reason. His blend of compelling instrumental music with dramatic or lyrical vocal lines is, to this reviewer’s ears, every bit as effective as, say, Samuel Barber’s. But we would not know that without the expert realization given to his score by vocalists like Öznur Tülüoğlu, Colleen Daly, John Riesen, and Peter Kendall Clark.

And in this regard, attention should focus equally on the contribution of pianist Eileen Downey. Cipullo has, for eminently practical reasons, created three versions of his score, plus a rehearsal score with piano. One version is for full orchestra, one for fifteen instruments, and one for nine instruments (the version on CD). The version performed in Greensboro was the rehearsal score. It was, of course, disappointing to learn that Cipullo’s instrumentation would not be heard, but in the event, Ms. Downey’s music making on piano was so perfectly gauged, atmospheric, and responsive to the singers that your reviewer forgot to regret the lack of an instrumental ensemble.

The opera divides into two highly contrasted acts. The first, through composed, is set in a world of action, the world of Jim Thompson’s captivity and Alyce’s gradual adjustment to single parenthood. In it Cipullo’s double characters variously corroborate, interrupt, complete, and ignore their other selves inventively. As other reviewers have noted, this composer has a sure touch when bringing together vocal utterances and instrumental accompaniments. A stage work as tightly and intimately integrated as the first act could probably only be written by someone responsible for both text and music. The second act is that of a number opera, where extended lyrical arias allow characters to reflect on the consequences of actions portrayed in the first act. The arias go down easy, as they say, but without ever bringing Puccini to mind or the folksy Aaron Copland or Carlisle Floyd either. More apt comparisons might be made with forebears like Samuel Barber (Vanessa), Robert Ward (The Crucible), and Lee Hoiby (Summer and Smoke). But make no mistake: Tom Cipullo has his own musical voice, and in this reviewer’s opinion, it is one well worth hearing and rehearing.

The Sloane Theatre at Greensboro Day School is a large, modern facility with a sizable proscenium and large orchestra pit. The stage direction by Dean Anthony for this production was aptly simple and entirely free of gimmickry. It renders the dramatic complexities of the first act, especially, in ways that clarify the opera’s structure and meaning. Overall, then, overcoming budgetary limitations, the production of Glory Denied by Greensboro Opera can, without reservation, be called a significant success, with superb singing and acting, intelligent stagecraft, and sensitive accompaniment. ■

EXTERNAL LINKS:

• Greensboro Opera: greensboroopera.org
• Peter Kendall Clark: peterkendallclark.com
• Colleen Daly: colleendaly.com
• John Riesen: johnriesen.com
• Öznur Tülüoğlu: oznurtuluoglu.com

About the author:

Christopher Hill has performed, in concert, as soloist, accompanist, and band member, classical, jazz, blues, and rock music on various keyboards and stringed instruments. He obtained a degree in musicology and has written about music, music theory, and music history for over five decades. He currently lives in Durham, North Carolina, from whence he travels to concerts throughout the Southland.

Read more by Christopher Hill.

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