Fellow Travelers, Seattle Opera

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved Fellow Travelers. Contemporary operas can be hit or miss for me. While Fellow Travelers didn’t have the spectacle that I prefer (no extravagant sets or costumes, and a small cast) the story and music just pulled me in. I was thinking about this well after curtain.

The setting is 1950s Washington D.C. Eisenhower is president and Senator McCarthy is on his anti-communist Red Scare rampage. The government is also on the hunt for homosexuals, under the guise of security risks. Against this Lavender Scare backdrop, two  staffers fall into a secret, tumultuous relationship.

I admit the show started off a bit rough. The opera is in English and the lyrics were…mundane. It was  jarring to hear Tim and Hawk sing in such operatic style while having the most ordinary conversation. I guess Italian opera is also like that, you just don’t notice if you don’t under stand the words.

But when the show gets to the scene where Hawk seduces Tim, the show just pops! This scene was amazing. The music, the acting, the blocking! The whole scene is so well done, so heated, and edgy with some shock nudity on stage. And again, the music. Hearing these two lovers sing about Bermuda was everything I expect from opera.

From there the show just continued to shine. The plot (16 scenes across two acts!) kept moving, which is unusual for opera, but it works here. The music was amazing, with  wonderful group numbers.  I love when you hear multiple voices intertwined. It felt so Mozart.

All of the performances were top notch and so well cast. Tim was so believable as the young, earnest, young writer. Hawk was the older, more pragmatic man who at times does some really awful things.  He wasn’t a straight up villain, although the actor would be right at home as any Mozart scoundrel. I kept wondering about his motivations. Was he in love? Did he have Tim’s best interest in mind at the end, or was he just protecting himself? There were so many ups and downs in this love story and I loved them all.