Gala World Premiere of Karyl Evans’ Documentary Film Letter from Italy, 1944: A New American Oratorio Narrated by Meryl Streep

L to R: Nan Meneely, Joseph D'Eugenio, Sarah Meneely-Kyder, Meryl Streep, Karyl Evans

Greater Middletown Chorale will celebrate Flag Day with the World Premiere screening of a moving documentary about PTSD and music, entitled “Letter from Italy, 1944: A New American Oratorio.” The film, by Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Karyl Evans and narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Meryl Streep, chronicles the creation of Letter from Italy, 1944 (LFI), which was presented to a standing-room-only audience by GMChorale in April of 2013. The screening of this powerful documentary will begin at 3:30 pm on Sunday, June 14, at the MHS Performing Arts Center, 200 LaRosa Lane, Middletown, CT. There is a suggested donation of $25.

After a recent screening of the documentary for a Yale veterans’ group, Professor Andy Morgan from the University of New Haven commented, “In her film, Karyl Evans achieves something that many filmmakers only aspire to do: She inspires! While letting us share an intimate portrait of the love and the losses created by war in one family, she gives us the opportunity to experience a stunning work of art and to remember that we are not spectators to war and its effects; we are fellow human beings who share the toll exacted by war and who can also find solace and resolution in music and poetry.”

In 2010, Grammy-nominated composer Sarah Meneely-Kyder and her sister, noted poet Nancy Meneely, saw GMChorale’s staged production of Mendelsson’s Elijah, and were so impressed with the performance that they chose GMChorale to bring their music, based on their father’s poetry and war-time love letters to their mother, to the public stage. The oratorio, conceived by the two sisters, is the story of their father, Dr. John Meneely, a medic with the 10th Mountain Division in WWII, who returned home with emotional wounds— what we now term PTSD.

The Chorale commissioned the work, according to Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio, to “create something very new and very innovative,” blurring the lines between several genres—opera, choral music and theater—thereby expanding its appeal to a larger audience. The completion of the oratorio resulted from a collaborative effort between Director D’Eugenio and the sisters to create a story line, with the music being composed around the poems, and to decide which pieces would be choruses, arias, duets and trios. Sheila Garvey, who had staged the Chorale’s performance of Elijah, was brought in to operatically stage LFI.

Early on, Karyl Evans (karylevansproductions.com) was approached about the possibility of documenting the preparation and performance of the oratorio and expanding the message of Dr. Meneely’s story, which is also the story of any soldier who goes to war and returns home to struggle with the effects of that experience. The film includes many interviews, including three with WWII veterans from the 10th Mountain Division (two of whom are from CT) who attended the performance and spoke of their military experiences.

The GMChorale-commissioned documentary expresses the Meneely sisters’ hope that writing this oratorio would honor their father’s life, as well as all who go to war and those who wait for them at home. In the words of tenor Jack Anthony Pott, who sang the role of Dr. Meneely, “If this story touches one person, it has done its work.”

The Premiere Gala, GMChorale’s major fund-raiser, will follow this event at 5:30 pm at Wadsworth Mansion, 421 Wadsworth St., Middletown. Join the GMChorale and film celebrities as they gather to celebrate with food, drink and song! Gala admission is $100 per person, which will include the screening of the film. Visit www.gmchorale.org or call 860-316-4854 for information.