• For Whom the Bell Tolls

    Opera

An Opera Emerges
drawing of bridge
Ernest Hemingway's
For Whom the Bell Tolls


A New Opera in Two Acts
Fighting Fascism and Sacrificing for Love


Music by
Brian Wilbur Grundstrom

Libretto by
David M. Dorsen

Music Director
Jeffrey Sean Dokken

Dramaturg
Robert Barnett

Hem­ing­way was a larger-than-life personality. In his popular novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, we can see some of the author in the character of Robert Jordan, an idealistic young American in 1930's Spain, who accepts a doomed mission to blow up a bridge.

Through his lyrical melody-driven music, Brian Wil­bur Grund­strom brings out the emotional depths of the characters and new insight to this Hem­ing­way classic. Using the full versatility of opera, David Dorsen's libretto and Grund­strom's music explore Hem­ing­way's themes of trust, loyalty, honor, love, betrayal, fear, pain, loss, and sacrifice, while adding modern insight, as Robert Jordan's notions of honor clash with the reality of civil war.

The opera takes place in the mountains of northern Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1937.

Indra Thomas Sings
Will He Love Me?
Maestro Jeffrey Dokken, Composer Brian Wilbur Grundstrom, Soprano Indra Thomas and Barbara Beninato with the Rome Symphony Orchestra
Development Workshop Concert Performance

November 20, 2022 at 3pm

Church of the Epiphany, 1317 G Street NW, Washington DC 20005

Full Concert Video