• For Whom the Bell Tolls

    Opera

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

drawing of bridge

Hem­ing­way was a larger-than-life personality. In his popular novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, there is a bit of the author in the character of Robert Jordan, an idealistic young American in 1930's fascist 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 his notions of honor clash with the reality of the situation.

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

Development Workshop Concert Performance
Highlights

November 20, 2022 at 3pm

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