{"id":104942,"date":"2025-05-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/?p=104942"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T20:11:38","slug":"pitman-reviews-ruo-american-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/pitman-reviews-ruo-american-soldier\/","title":{"rendered":"John Pitman Reviews: Huang Ruo&#8217;s &#8216;An American Soldier&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:40%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"495\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-495x495.jpg\" alt=\"Huang Ruo's 'An American Soldier'\" class=\"wp-image-104946\" srcset=\"https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-495x495.jpg 495w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum-624x624.jpg 624w, https:\/\/acp-website.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BlogPitman_AmericanSoldierAlbum.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:60%\">\n<p>All Classical Radio\u2019s Director of Programming John Pitman&#8217;s latest Arts Blog interview is a timely one, in conjunction with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Memorial Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Composer, pianist, and vocalist Huang Ruo&#8217;s latest recording <em>An American Soldier<\/em> is a powerful and moving opera based on the true story of a young Chinese American Army solider named Pvt. Danny Chen, who was found dead at his base in Afghanistan in 2011, and the ensuing courts-martial of Chen\u2019s fellow soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John&#8217;s interview is with composer Huang Ruo and his longtime creative partner librettist David Hwang (<em>M. Butterfly<\/em>, <em>Yellow Face<\/em>, and the Broadway production of <em>Tarzan<\/em> among others), who share their interactions with Danny&#8217;s mother and father in the musical telling of this tragic but also important American story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Hear their conversation below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"John Pitman Reviews: Huang Ruo&#039;s &#039;An American Soldier&#039; by All Classical Radio\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F2101110912&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=750&#038;maxwidth=500\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>An American Soldier<\/em> is now available digitally in collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra and Platoon. For more, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/platoon.lnk.to\/anamericansoldier\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">platoon.lnk.to\/anamericansoldier<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All Classical Radio\u2019s Director of Programming John Pitman&#8217;s latest Arts Blog interview is a timely one, in conjunction with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Memorial Day. Composer, pianist, and vocalist Huang Ruo&#8217;s latest recording An American Soldier is a powerful and moving opera based on the true story of a young Chinese &#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":104943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4040],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pitman-reviews"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 04:04:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104942"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104968,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104942\/revisions\/104968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allclassical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}