Fellow Travelers

Composer Gregory Spears | Librettist Greg Pierce

Based on the novel by Thomas Mallon

Dates:
Friday, June 21, 2024 7:30 PM
Saturday, June 22, 2024 7:30 PM
Sunday, June 23, 2024 3 PM

Ticket Prices: $50 – $120; $30 (Student)

Venue: Presidio Theatre, San Francisco | Get Directions

The West Coast premiere of the opera adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel Fellow Travelers, a tender love story and political thriller set in the corridors of power during the McCarthy era. Adapted by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce, Opera Parallèle and the Presidio Theatre are proud to bring this contemporary classic to the West Coast, a beautiful opera with the message that love will always flourish under persecution.

Sung in English with supertitles | Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including intermission

Fellow Travelers follows the story of Hawk and Tim, who become clandestine lovers at the height of the McCarthy Era in 1950’s Washington D.C. Recent college graduate Timothy Laughlin is eager to join the crusade against communism, and a chance
encounter with handsome State Department official Hawkins Fuller leads to Tim’s first job—and his first love affair with a man.

Drawn into a maelstrom of deceit, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions and his forbidden love for Fuller. The piece uses the love affair of Laughlin and Fuller to shed light on the ‘Lavender Scare’, an often-overlooked period of McCarthyism that resulted in the mass firings of suspected homosexuals from the United States government. With Senator McCarthy’s investigations into ‘sexual subversives’, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his love for God, and his love for Fuller.

Sung in English with supertitles | Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including intermission

Cast & Creativesfor Fellow Travelers

Cast

Jonathan Pierce Rhodes*

Jonathan Pierce Rhodes*

Timothy Laughlin

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Hometown: Orlando, FL, USA

Recent engagements:

  • Candide, Leonard Bernstein, (The Glimmerglass Festival)

Past engagements:

  • Turandot, Giacomo Puccini, (The Washington National Opera)
  • Blue, Jeanine Tesori, Tazewell Thompson, (New Orleans Opera)

JonathanPierceRhodes.com

Photo credit Julius Sanchez

Joseph Lattanzi*

Joseph Lattanzi*

Hawkins Fuller

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Hometown: Atlanta, GA, USA

Recent engagements:

  • The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Mason Bates and Mark Campbell (San Francisco Opera)
  • I Pagliacci, Leoncavallo (Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera)
  • Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini (Atlanta Opera)

Upcoming engagements:

  • L'elisir d'amore, Donizetti (Minnesota Opera)
  • Don Giovanni, Mozart (Atlanta Opera)
  • Sacrifice of Isaac, Leshnoff (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)

JosephLattanziBaritone.com

Photo credit Patricia Westley

Maya Kherani

Maya Kherani

Mary Johnson

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Hometown: The Woodlands, TX, USA

Recent engagements:

  • L'Orfeo, Sartorio, Aureli (Opéra national de Montpellier)
  • L'incoronazione di Poppea, Monteverdi, Busenello (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Château de Versailles Spectacles)
  • Pay the Piper, Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade, Anna Appleby, Cecilia Livingston and Ailie Robertson, Hazel Gould (Glyndebourne)

Upcoming engagements:

  • Don Giovanni, W.A. Mozart, Da Ponte (Boston Baroque)
  • L'Orfeo, Monteverdi, Striggio (Pacific MusicWorks)
  • Women of the Baroque, Barbara Strozzi (Bellingham Symphony)

mayakherani.com

Photo credit Veronique Kherian

Kurt Winterhalter

Kurt Winterhalter

Tommy McIntyre

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Hometown: Northridge, CA, USA

Recent engagements:

  • The Shining, Paul Moravec, Mark Campbell (Opera Parallèle)
  • Le Nozze di Figaro, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte (Prague Summer Nights)

Photo credit Greg Crowder

Elena Galván

Elena Galván

Miss Lightfoot

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Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

Recent engagements:

  • Le nozze de Figaro, Mozart (Syracuse Opera and Tri-Cities Opera)
  • L'elisir d'amore, Donizetti (Livermore Valley Opera)
  • We Wear The Sea Like a Coat, McCune (Opera Ithaca)

www.elenagalvan.com

Photo credit Jessica Osber

Cara Gabrielson

Cara Gabrielson

Lucy

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Hometown: Portland, OR, USA

Recent engagements:

  • Carmina Burana, Orff (San Francisco Symphony)
  • Idomeneo, Mozart, Varesco (The Metropolitan Opera)
  • Acis & Galatea, Handel, Gay/Pope/Hughes (Opera Idaho)

Upcoming engagements:

  • Florencia en el Amazonas, Catán, Fuentes-Barain (Opera San José)
  • The Elixir of Love, Donizetti, Romani (San Francisco Opera Guild)

https://www.caragabrielson.com/

Photo credit Jiyang Chen

Daniel Cilli

Daniel Cilli

Estonian Frank/Interrogator/Senator McCarthy

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Hometown: Emeryville, CA, USA

Recent engagements:

  • Boheme out of the Box, G. Puccini, Illica, Giacosa et al. (San Francisco Opera)
  • Proving Up, Missy Mazzoli, Royce Vavrek, Karen Russell (Pasadena Opera)
  • Sharaku Unframed, Hiroya Miura (Left Coast Chamber Ensemble)

Upcoming engagements:

  • Fellow Travelers, Gregory Spears, Greg Pierce (Opera Parallèle)

https://www.danielcilli.com/

Photo credit Daniel Cilli

Bradley Kynard

Bradley Kynard

Senator Potter/General Arlie/Bartender

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Hometown: San Francisco, CA, USA

Recent Engagements:

  • Prospero's Island, Shearer, Stevens (Ninth Planet)
  • The Difference, Patzner, Patzner (Rific Records)

Upcoming Engagements:

  • Mer hahn en neue OberkeetBWV 212, Bach, (Rific Records)
  • A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil, Wold, (Wold Fabrications)

www.bradleykynard.com

Photo credit Will Manuel

Matt Lovell

Matt Lovell

Potter’s Assistant/Bookseller/Technician/French Priest

Composer & Librettist

Gregory Spears

Gregory Spears

Composer

Greg Pierce

Greg Pierce

Librettist

Creative + Production

Jaymes Kirksey

Jaymes Kirksey

Guest Conductor

Brian Staufenbiel

Brian Staufenbiel

Stage/Creative Director

Jacquelyn Scott

Jacquelyn Scott

Scenic & Props Designer

Y. Sharon Peng

Y. Sharon Peng

Costume & Hair and Make-Up Designer

Mextly Couzin

Mextly Couzin

Lighting Designer

*Making Opera Parallèle debut this season

Supporters

Support for Fellow Travelers is provided in part by Robert Ripps & Steven Spector.