The My Lai Massacre Inspires an Opera

One of the most horrific episodes of the Vietnam War is being made into a government-funded opera. Expect intensity, though not explicit gore.

This year, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded grants to fund a musical production about the life of Marilyn Monroe, a new staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd—and an opera based on the My Lai massacre of 1968.

The horrific episode of the Vietnam War, in which American soldiers subjected hundreds of unarmed civilians (including infants and young girls) to murder, mutilation, and rape, is being brought to musical life by the celebrated San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet and several collaborators. The quartet won $80,000 to perform the two-hour show.