San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet released the world premier recording of the opera Mỹ Lai; appropriate timing as stories of Russian wartime atrocities in Ukraine make their way to our news feeds. This album pays tortured homage to the guilt and shame helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson felt as he watched and attempted to intervene as his own military relentlessly killed hundreds of south Vietnamese villagers, nearly half of whom were children. His subsequent refusal to remain quiet forced a trial that shocked the nation.
The dramatic score emphasizes the bleakness and horror of the Vietnam War, and features Vietnamese instruments performed by Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ. The musical materials were largely sourced from a prayer recited during Yom Kippur, begging pardon before final judgment.
