Opera Parallèle Will Present FELLOW TRAVELERS Next Month

Opera Parallèle and Presidio Theatre will salute the upcoming LGBTQ+ Pride Month with the West Coast premiere of Fellow Travelers, the highly acclaimed musical drama by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce for three performances June 21 – 23 at the intimate Presidio Theatre. Based on award winning author Thomas Mallon’s  novel – and recently adapted to a limited TV series for Showtime – Fellow Travelers is an extraordinary story of passion, loyalty, and ultimate betrayal during the 1950s Cold War McCarthy era and a frenzied Capitol Hill-led effort - that came to be known as the “Lavender Scare” - to publicly expose and fire suspected homosexuals working in the federal government and military.

Composer Gregory Spears, while preparing for the upcoming world premiere of his next opera, The Righteous, for Santa Fe Opera, recently commented, "In an era where living ‘in-the-closet’ is becoming increasingly rare, it seems important to put Fellow Travelers characters like Tim and Hawk on-stage — ordinary people fighting through life in an era where a public expression of love could threaten to destroy one’s world. My hope is that the nuanced machinery of opera might play a part in reminding us of this history, while also preserving in music the sensibility of doubleness that so often defined the gay experience at that time."

Opera Parallèle Stage & Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel offered his perspective on the new production: “The concept design for Fellow Travelers was inspired by the cruel ‘double-life’ the gay community was forced to live during the McCarthy era and the many tragic stories that this caused. This notion juxtaposes the idea that how people are forced to present themselves, is not necessarily how people truly identify, and most importantly, how they want to live their lives. The set design is sleek and modular, moving seamlessly from scene to scene using succinct silhouettes and projected paintings from the period. OP’s creative team will use the design element of silhouettes, as an overarching metaphor, or shell, that people live in, and more specifically, the shell that the LGBTQ were--and continue here and around the world--to be forced to live in.”  

Fellow Travelers was developed and co-commissioned by G. Sterling Zinsmeyer and Cincinnati Opera where it received its world premiere in June 2016. Since then, the opera has garnered universal critical praise and enthusiastic popular approval at New York’s 2018 Prototype Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Minnesota Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera.

The New Yorker wrote, "Spears, possesses a singular compositional voice, unlike any that has been heard in opera before,” and The New York Times affirmed, “With its smart music and sharp-edged romantic drama, ‘Fellow Travelers’ seems assured of lasting appeal…the show suggests that — at this moment in time, in particular — it offered much more than mere entertainment." And of the opera’s Chicago debut, the Chicago Tribune proclaimed “…a poignant and moving meditation on a particularly shameful episode of gay history. ‘Fellow Travelers’ is one of the most accomplished new American operas I have encountered in recent years.” The Wall Street Journal enthused, “Mr. Spears's subtle, lyrical music is beautiful without being obvious or sentimental.” Adding to the praise, Seen and Heard International declared Fellow Travelers as, “…superb musical drama.”

On the podium leading the 17-piece Opera Parallèle orchestra and Fellow Travelers artists will be Guest Conductor Jaymes Kirksey. The creative team includes Stage & Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel; Scenic Designer/Props Jacquelyn Scott; Costume & Hair/Makeup Designer Y. Sharon Peng; and Lighting Designer Spense Matubang.

The highly talented cast features Jonathan Pierce Rhodes* as Timothy Laughlin; Joseph Lattanzi* in the role he successfully originated as Hawkins Fuller; Victoria Lawal* as Mary Johnson; Kurt Winterhalter as Tommy McIntyre; Elena Galván* as Miss Lightfoot; Cara Gabrielson as Lucy; Daniel Cilli in the multiple roles of Estonian Frank, Interrogator and Senator McCarthy; Matthew Worth* in the various roles of Senator Potter, General Arlie and Bartender; and Matthew Lovell* in several roles including Potter’s Assistant, Bookseller, Technician, and French Priest.

Three performances of Fellow Travelers are scheduled for Friday, June 21, 2024 at 7.30 p.m.; Saturday, June 22 at 7.30 p.m.; and Sunday, June 23 at 3 p.m.; Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Avenue, San Francisco. Tickets are: $50 - $120, and $30 for students. Purchase tickets online at  https://www.presidiotheatre.org/show/2023fellowtravelers/.

Fellow Travelers is presented in two acts, one intermission with an approximate running time of two hours, fifteen minutes. The opera is performed in English with projected supertitles.

Opera Parallèle’s Bullhorn Community Programs will proffer a variety of highly informative ancillary activities to learn more about Fellow Travelers – including a 60-minute conversation with Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce on May 16 -- and related LGBTQ+ history, performance, exhibit and much more; details at https://operaparallele.org/thebullhorn/.  (See attached Calendar for complete details.)

JUST ADDED: author Thomas Mallon will offer a pre-performance chat for ticket holders on Friday, June 21 at 6.30 p.m.

Support for Fellow Travelers is provided in part by Gordon Getty, Helen Berggruen & Hilary Rand, Philip Goward & Theodore Ueki, Stephen & Diane Heiman, and Robert Ripps & Steven Spector.

 

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