"Ten years ago, Fellow Travelers "was history; now the opera is news," said author Thomas Mallon opening night Feb. 21 at Seattle Opera. His book, Fellow Travelers, was published in 2007, almost 20 years ago. The opera premiered in Cincinnati in 2016."
"The opera portrays a heart-breaking and clandestine gay love story amid the discriminatory politics of the 1950s, where thousands of LGBTQ+ people were spied on and fired from the U.S. government. Called the Lavender Scare, it was a time and event about which most people know much less than they do the accompanying Red Scare."
"Now in 2026, have things changed that much politically, even if gay marriage has been legal since 2015, and more people feel safe enough to disclose their sexual orientation? Not really. We are in another stage of the Lavender Scare that surfaced 70 years ago."
Fellow Travelers, an English-language opera based on Thomas Mallon's 2007 novel, premiered in Cincinnati in 2016 and is now on a 10-year anniversary tour. The two-hour drama tells a heart-breaking love story set during the 1950s Lavender Scare, when thousands of LGBTQ+ people were spied on and fired from U.S. government positions. The opera recently completed a six-performance Seattle run selling 10,000 tickets, followed by a Portland engagement at the Newmark Theatre in March. The production, created with Up Until Now Collective, aims eventually for Broadway. A Showtime series adaptation already exists. The opera addresses historical persecution while raising contemporary questions about ongoing discrimination.
Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
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