Performed by the Kronos Quartet with vocalist Rinde Eckert and Vietnamese instrumentalist Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, the work was first performed unstaged at Stanford University's Bing Concert Hall last fall. The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a fierce and often harrowing work of musical theater...hauntingly beautiful" and noted that "My Lai" "treated its painful subject matter with eloquence and sensitivity.
In particular, Chessman’s libretto remains in tight close-up throughout,
keeping Thompson’s immediate experience of the massacre at the
forefront." Tonight's premiere includes a post-performance conversation with Berger, Chessman, and the musical performers.
Chessman's novel The Beauty of Ordinary Things, published prior to her creation of the "My Lai" libretto, is the story of a young Vietnam veteran striving to find his bearings amid the everyday life of 1973 New England. ForeWord Magazine called it "a beautiful étude of humanity...a song of the soul." Her novel Someone Not Really Her Mother, originally published in 2004, was reissued by Atelier26 last year.
