Fellow Travelers

I went to see a performance of the opera Fellow Travelers presented by Chicago's Lyric Opera this afternoon and really enjoyed the show. I am not an opera person at all, but I read Thomas Mallon's book Fellow Travelers that the opera was based on and really liked it so I was anxious to see the novel presented as an opera. Fellow Travelers is the story of a young, naive recent college graduate named Timothy Laughlin who falls head over hills for a dashing older man named Hawkins Fuller in Washington, DC during the 1950's. Because of the times and the on-going fear from the McCarthyism was running rampant in the country, Tim and Hawk are forced to keep their relationship under cover and the strain of it all causes heartbreak for them both.

The opera was great because the performers were great. The men who played the roles of Tim (Jonas Hacker) and Hawk (Joseph Lattanzi) were excellent and had wonderful chemistry. When I saw the actors on the Lyric's website before the performance, I worried that the singer playing Hawk was too young for the role (and he was), but he was such a delight in the role that I overlooked that minor issue during the actual performance. He's also very good looking and there were a surprisingly plentiful number of scenes where he appeared shirtless or in various states of undress during the show which wasn't a bad thing.

If Fellow Travelers comes to your town, I highly recommend checking it out. I also recommend the book if the opera is or isn't your thing.