Cincinnati Opera: Fellow Travelers

At the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington, D.C., recent college grad Timothy Laughlin is eager to join the crusade against communism.

A chance encounter with a 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—an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal.

Cincinnati Opera is proud to present the world premiere of this heartrending opera by one of today’s leading composers, Gregory Spears, whose work has been called “astonishingly beautiful” (The New York Times) and “coolly entrancing” (The New Yorker). Playwright Greg Pierce has adapted Thomas Mallon‘s searing historical novel into an opera with the style of Mad Men and the political intrigue of House of Cards.