Photo: Keith Ian Polakoff/Long Beach Opera.
U.S. Marine Sergeant Christian Ellis helped turn the demons of war into Fallujah -- the first opera on the Iraq War. Artbound documentary Fallujah: Art, Healing, and PTSD explores how the experience of war is transformed into a work of art. Watch the episodes debut Tuesday, May 24 at 9 p.m., or check for rebroadcasts here.
Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel, wrote Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda. Yet war often generates great art. The opera Fallujah, inspired by the recollections of violence and tragedy of Iraq War veteran Christian Ellis (and performed by Long Beach Opera in March 2016) is a stunning example.
In 2004, Ellis was a 19-year-old Marine entering the Iraq War as a machine gunner. He fought in the second battle of Fallujah, witnessing some of the fiercest fighting during that war, as well as its intense toll on his fellow Marines and on Iraqis. As one of few survivors of a major ambush, he returned home seriously wounded both emotionally and physically with a fractured spine, while battling post traumatic stress disorder. And after several suicide attempts, he resumed his former passion for singing as a method to relieve his anguish.
Fallujah was conceived by philanthropist and filmmaker Charles Annenberg Weingarten who met Ellis at a fly fishing retreat for soldiers with PTSD, and was moved by his courage when faced with personal tragedies and haunting memories of war. He suggested that Ellis transform his war experiences and PTSD into an opera that could help heal those suffering from similar problems. Weingarten provided a grant of $250,000 from the Annenberg Foundation and his division explore.org to City Opera Vancouver. The goal was to assemble a team with Ellis as the story consultant, along with a writer and composer, to create a contemporary opera about the War in Iraq.
Tobin Stokes, Heather Raffo and Christian Ellis. | Photo: Joseph Kovar/Long Beach Opera.
Heather Raffo, an award-winning Iraqi-American playwright was selected to write the libretto for Fallujah. She had already produced her one-woman play 9 Parts of Desire, documenting the plight of women in Iraq. To begin creating the opera's narrative, she spent quality time with Ellis, who flew to New York to meet with her, in early 2011. The two discussed in great detail his complex and painful Iraq War experiences.
In a phone interview from Brooklyn, Raffo explained, Christian and I both had our guard up initially. But as they dialogued about the impact of the Iraq War on their lives they, developed deep trust and compassion for each other. Once the floodgates opened, they talked for 10 hours a day for a week. And as they talked, she began formulating the libretto for the opera, which would profile the lives and relationships of two young men (and their mothers), one an American Marine, the other an Iraqi boy and lifelong resident of the war-torn city of Fallujah.
Raffo, who grew up in Michigan with an Iraqi father and European-American mother, became obsessed with our country's presence in the Middle East during the 1990 Gulf War when she was just 20 years old. Then on election night, 2000, she told her father, Were going to war again in Iraq. And during that war, which began in 2003, she witnessed one Iraqi relative after another leaving the country for disparate parts of the world, or suffering under the brutal violence occurring there. I used to have 100 relatives in Iraq. Now I have only three, she said, a reality that helped her relate to Ellis who lost dozens of comrades in the war. The fact that Raffo had just given birth to her first son when she met with Ellis added to their bonding. He saw me as a mother figure, she explained.
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Raffo also interviewed other American soldiers and Iraqis for the opera's narrative. My intention was to spark a national conversation about the emotional cost of the war, as men and women returning home could not talk openly about their experiences there, particularly with their families. In the act of speaking, there is a journey and part of that journey is healing. She added, I wanted to put the audience inside the restless mind of a Marine returning from war, to collectively experience how the memory of violence is carried by all who come into contact with it, how hard it is to heal from and how deep is the human desire to communicate even during conflict.
As Raffo completed the libretto for the opera, she collaborated with Tobin Stokes who was contracted by City Opera Vancouver to create the music for Fallujah. The Canadian composer (of opera, choral music and film) wove into the contemporary opera melodies inspired by Middle Eastern and American rock music. Stokes explained, This is a very real story of people who live among us. I've tried to create a unique musical vocabulary influenced by compelling characters from disparate cultures. Raffo added, The operatic voice is the most sophisticated instrument to articulate what is unspeakable... to express the shades of love, trauma and agony. Early versions of Fallujah were performed in workshops at City Opera Vancouver in 2012, at the Kennedy Center, Georgetown University, Noor Theater (NYC), the Culture Project (NYC), and at the University of Southern Florida, Tampa, among others.
On March 12, 2016, Fallujah had its full-length world premiere in Long Beachs cavernous Army National Guard building. The final performance of this Long Beach Opera Company production was held on March 20, on the 13th anniversary of the United States' shock and awe invasion of Iraq. Discussing the show's unusual theme, Long Beach Opera artistic and general director Andreas Mitisek said that the company's mission is, to produce works of social relevance. With the company's approval, he began look
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Photo: Keith Ian Polakoff/Long Beach Opera. 
