Fellow Travelers

A love that dare not speak its name

Set in 1950s Washington, D.C. amidst the oft-overlooked “Lavender Scare,” a US government employment purge that resulted in thousands of firings and resignations of men and women believed to be members of the LGBTQ+ community, Fellow Travelers tells the story of a forbidden love between Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate, and Hawkins Fuller, an official at the State Department. As Tim struggles to reconcile his faith, his political beliefs, and his new-found passion, Hawkins takes an increasingly cavalier attitude towards their relationship, ultimately ending in betrayal and heartbreak.

Opera News called Fellow Travelers “...an absorbing, gripping, throroughly attractive piece with considerable contemporary relevance and complex, three-dimensional characters." The budding attraction between Tim and Hawkins has "all the infectious warmth, humor, and sweetness of the early scenes in La Bohéme,” said the New York Times. “With its smart music and sharp-edged romantic drama, Fellow Travelers seems assured of lasting appeal.”

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MUSIC BY
Gregory Spears

LIBRETTO BY
Greg Pierce

BASED ON
"Fellow Travelers," the 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon

PREMIERED
17 June 2016
Cincinnati Opera

SUNG IN
English (with English supertitles)

COMPANY PREMIERE

PERFORMED AT
Hoyt Sherman Place

Fellow Travelers was originally developed and co-commissioned by G. Sterling Zinsmeyer & Cincinnati Opera. Original concept and production direction by Kevin Newbury for the Cincinnati Opera. 

Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, sole U.S. and Canadian agent for Schott Helicon Music Corporation, New York, publisher and copyright owner.