Two-time Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori’s powerful new opera, “Grounded”, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play premiered earlier this week on Monday, September 22nd 2024. The show’s Costume Designer, Tom Broecker, whose previous work you may have seen on “Saturday Night Live”, “House Of Cards” and “30 Rock” recently tapped the creative team of Cockpit USA to commission flight suits for the show’s cast.
“Grounded” first began as a one-woman play which premiered in 2013 and earned widespread acclaim in a 2015 production, starring Anne Hathaway. The Grounded opera is set in the very recent past and depicts one woman’s journey from a successful F-16 combat pilot in the United States Air Force to a Reaper drone operator in the Nevada desert.
Jess, the lead who is played by Emily D’Angelo, adjusts to this “new way” of doing battle. Jess also struggles with the pressures of being the perfect soldier, the perfect wife, and the perfect mother all at the same time. Met Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, takes the podium while Michael Mayer’s high-tech staging, featuring a cast array of LED screens, presents a variety of perspectives on the action including the drone’s predatory view from high above.
Composer, Jeanine Tesori, is the most prolific female composer in American theater history and one of the first two women ever commissioned to compose an opera for the Met. Featured below is the entire cast of “Grounded” wearing Cockpit USA flight suits commissioned by the MET Opera.
“We’ve all seen so many war stories, and for thousands of years, they’ve all been told from a male perspective. So when you see that woman up there in her flight suit, right away there’s a jolt. Plus, the topic of women in the military is an entry point for any woman who has worked in a male-dominated environment. It also helps show that this is the worst work-life balance scenario possible. This woman is going to war for 12 hours a day and then stopping to pick up milk on her way home, where she has to be a functioning part of a family.” Says George Brant on how he decided to focus on a woman pilot for “Grounded”.
As a supplier to the USAF and a veteran owned family business, it may come at no surprise to you that the Met’s Costumer Designer, Tom Broecker, would contact Cockpit USA to produce flight suits for this very special opera. We’re incredibly thrilled and honored to be involved with the Metropolitan Opera. Thank you!
If you’re located in the New York area, the “Grounded” Opera is scheduled to run from September 23rd – October 19th 2024. Shop our flight suits and other Air Force items here.