Opera Philadelphia To Offer A Free Stream Of David T. Little's SOLDIERS SONGS

In recognition of Veterans Day and the 20th anniversary of David T. Little’s groundbreaking Soldier Songs, Opera Philadelphia will make its acclaimed film adaptation of the opera available to stream free on YouTube beginning on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026.

The film, directed by and starring baritone Johnathan McCullough, offers audiences around the world an intimate, cinematic encounter with Little’s powerful examination of war, memory and trauma. The film originally premiered on the Opera Philadelphia Channel in 2021 and was subsequently nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording. The streaming availability invites veterans, military families, students, educators, opera audiences and viewers encountering the work for the first time to experience Little’s singular fusion of music, theater and cinema—and to consider the lasting human costs of war.

Watch at https://www.youtube.com/operaphila

Based on interviews with veterans of World War II, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan, Soldier Songs traces one composite Soldier through three stages of life: childhood, military service, and old age. Blending opera, theater, and rock-infused concert music, Little’s work explores the ways popular culture can shape perceptions of war—and the profound psychological consequences of experiencing it firsthand.

A work that has evolved across two decades

Little began composing  Soldier Songs after a 2004 conversation with a childhood friend who had recently returned from Iraq. The composer subsequently drew on interviews with veterans to create an intensely personal work for a single baritone and amplified seven-piece ensemble. The piece was commissioned by Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and first presented in 2006. The work continued to evolve theatrically. A workshop presentation was featured in New York City Opera’s VOX Showcase in 2008, followed by a staged production by Beth Morrison Projects at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, one of the earliest examples of the “indie-opera” aesthetic that would explode on the scene within a decade. The first full production premiered at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven in 2011, directed by Yuval Sharon and starring David Adam Moore with members of Little’s ensemble Newspeak, with the composer himself on drum set.

Since then, Soldier Songs has been presented by opera companies and festivals across the country, including Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, San Diego Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, PROTOTYPE Festival, and Chicago Opera Theater, among others. The work has also been presented internationally, including at the Holland Festival.

In 2021, Opera Philadelphia transformed the work yet again, creating a film specifically for the screen rather than simply filming a stage production. Filmed on location at the Brandywine Conservancy’s Birmingham Hill Preserve in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the movie places McCullough’s Soldier in and around a deteriorating trailer in an isolated landscape, using cinematic language to enter the character’s fractured psychological world. McCullough both directed and starred in the film, with James Darrah serving as producer and screenwriter and Corrado Rovaris as music director. The film was produced by Opera Philadelphia in association with FreshFly.