Opera Parallèle is celebrating Pride with the West Coast premiere of “Fellow Travelers,” composer Gregory Spears’ work based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel about a gay romance during the McCarthy-era Lavender Scare.
Onstage at San Francisco’s Presidio Theatre June 21-23, “Fellow Travelers” is billed as a “musical drama.” Baritone Joseph Lattanzi, who plays Hawkins Fuller — a State Department employee and one of the pair in the complex gay affair — calls it an apt description.
“I do think musical drama is a really good descriptor for this piece because the text and libretto are so beautiful, so poetic, so thoughtful, and it really feels like doing a play to music,” says Lattanzi, who originated the role at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 and has played it since in other U.S. cities.
“I just did ‘Don Giovanni’ last month in Arizona, which feels grand and operatic, and with this piece it’s really immediate and we connect to it really well,” Lattanzi adds.
“Fellow Travelers” is derived from the term demagogic Sen. Joseph McCarthy used in the early 1950s for Communist sympathizers, whom he said infiltrated the government, universities and industry. Aided by notorious chief counsel Roy Cohn, McCarthy also targeted suspected homosexuals. The atmosphere of the concurrent Red Scare and Lavender Scare is richly described in Mallon’s book, and the musical drama as well. (The book also was adapted for a 2023 Showtime miniseries.)
“The libretto by Greg Pierce is one of the most faithful adaptations I have read. There are so many direct citations from the book, a lot of the language chapter by chapter that’s used,” says tenor Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, who portrays Timothy Laughlin, the cub reporter who meets and is smitten by Fuller.
“Fellow Travelers” begins with the chance encounter in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood between Hawkins and Laughlin, a fledging reporter. Fuller helps Laughlin secure a position as a speech writer for Sen. Charles Potter, and Laughlin gives Hawkins a book as thanks. Their brewing mutual attraction is ultimately consummated, and their relationship ensues.
Although the men are affectionate, Fuller is more guarded than Laughlin about the relationship, especially as McCarthy’s crusade targets Fuller for questioning about his sexuality. Fuller ultimately tries to distance himself from Laughlin, a move that proves fateful and casts a shadow on his character.
“I don’t think he’s a bad person writ large, and I think he is in a difficult situation in the time and society he is living in and so he does the best he can, but ultimately he’s a bit of a coward when it comes to how we understand love as fully realized today,” Lattanzi says of Fuller. “At that time, being gay wasn’t socially acceptable and there were consequences with his job, so I think he didn’t make the courageous choice to love and to be in love with the person he really fell in love with.”
Rhodes, who is gay, identifies with Laughlin and acknowledges the characters in “Fellow Travelers” lived in a less tolerant era than today. He adds that Laughlin is more honest about his feelings than Fuller.
“He starts off as this young, innocent, naive but breaking-into-the-world person and he lives very faithfully to his Catholic faith, but discovers within himself his sexuality,” Rhodes says. “Hawk is the first guy he really commits to in a serious relationship, and you get to see what that does to him. His view of the world also changes. It’s a coming-of-age story through the lens of the Lavender Scare.”
A touching duet Lattanzi and Rhodes share about a trip to Bermuda in which a proposal is made in Act 1 is a musical high-water mark in “Fellow Travelers.” But Lattanzi says there is much more to Spears’ score, which is “paced brilliantly,” and from the onset grabs audiences and takes them on a “roller-coaster journey.”
“There’s a lot of impulses in the music. It’s very rhythmic and it combines many elements, including minimalism and Renaissance polyphony,” Lattanzi says. “Even the aria that I sing in Act 2 is like a 14th-century French troubadour-inspired thing with roulades, coloratura and almost an improvisational feel to it.”
Spears, whose works include “The Righteous” (premiering in July at the Santa Fe Opera) and music for orchestra and chamber ensemble, composed a soaring, introspective Act 1 aria for Laughlin, which is sung in a church.
“That aria has so many possibilities in it: Timothy is so connected to his religious and ideological values, and for the first time in his life he has to challenge them, and It all happens in that aria,” Rhodes explains. “It’s a complete transformation for Timothy — it’s almost as if it takes on another color — and because of that there are many things you can do to show how you find that color, how you discover those moments of when he realizes he has a different clarity about things, and finding those kernels and tidbits is the most fun thing about that aria.”
While the lead characters in “Fellow Travelers” don’t live happily ever after, one iteration of the musical drama resulted in a felicitous real-life ending.
“In the production we did in Des Moines, I totally fell in love with my partner Timmy (tenor Christian Sanders),” Lattanzi recounts. “We really fell in love off stage as well as onstage, and we are still partners to this day.”
Opera Parallèle’s “Fellow Travelers” is at 7:30 p.m. June 21, June 22 and 3 p.m. June 23 at the Presidio Theatre, 99 Moraga Ave., San Francisco. For tickets ($50-$120, $30 for students) call (415) 960-3949 or visit presidiotheatre.org.
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