Opera with a soldier's heart

David T. Little didn't start out to write an opera. In fact, he didn't realize that's what he'd written until he showed it to a producer.

The project that became "Soldier Songs" began in the early 2000s, when he started talking to friends and family about war experiences. He found that most had never told their stories of war.

"That idea that there had been this massive, life-changing experience for each of them that they had never discussed with anyone — their parents, or their spouses, for most of their lives since — I found really interesting and really profound," he said. "And the difficulty of the telling became really what the core of the piece is about."

"Soldier Songs" uses the voices of soldiers whom Little interviewed. It also uses film clips of war scenes projected on a scrim, translucent fabric surrounding the stage. The single on-stage performer is behind the scrim throughout the production.

The storyline traces the perceptions of war from age 6 to 66.

Beth Morrison has been producing "Soldier Songs" since its premiere in 2006.

"Veterans that come to this piece always say the same thing to us, which is 'I can't believe that you understood my story,' and that they were able to share that story with their family in a way that they may have never been able to do before," she said. "So that's had a very profound effect on all of us."

Little, the composer, said he never intended the opera to make a statement about war. The process of writing it opened his mind, and he hopes to share that experience with audiences.

"I think when I started writing I wanted to understand, and by the time I finished it I realized that I really couldn't understand because I hadn't experienced what they had experienced," he said. "But ... I could approach understanding through empathy."

Reviewers have called Little "one of the most imaginative young composers" on the scene, and a "young radical."

He said his goal is always to give audiences a profound emotional experience, and he won't be limited by tradition. "Soldier Songs" was his first opera, and because he really didn't know he was writing an opera, the experience has had a strong influence on his composing style.

"Because it was the first time that I said, 'You know what, I grew up listening to rock music. If that's the right gesture compositionally, I'm going to use it,' you know," he explained. "So we hear moments that are kind of a nod to Metallica or Pantera, and then you have a moment that is kind of a nod to Sondheim."

Little said stretching the boundaries of convention is a way to make opera more accessible to new audiences.

"You know, opera has this sort of caricatured quality," he said. "But when you really get into it and you really experience it, it's the most magnificent thing, and it's a tradition that I feel really privileged to be a part of, and it's a tradition I love very dearly, so I just want to share that with absolutely everybody."

Morrison, the producer, said she hears from a lot of people having their first opera experience. They say, "I've never been to an opera, and I didn't think I would like opera, but if this is opera — I really like this."

"So it can be a gateway piece," she said, laughing.

Fargo Moorhead Opera Company general director David Hamilton said while the Minnesota Opera has a long history of performing new works, "Soldier Songs" is a bit avant garde for Fargo. But he said it's important to attract a wider audience for opera.

"Honestly, I don't know how people are going to react, but I hope that they will come and try it out," he said. "It's not your grandmother's opera. ... But it's really cool. You will not walk away from the theater the same person that you were when you came in."

"We all say, 'Oh, we support our troops,'" Hamilton said. "But I think that by watching this you will get a glimmer, just a glimmer, of what our troops have been through.

"And maybe the next time you say 'We support our troops,' you will have a little different take behind that saying."

Performances of "Soldier Songs" are at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Festival Concert Hall at North Dakota State University.