Kennedy Center, Washington
Another cancellation hits the fascist American leader’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The opera Fellow Travelers has been withdrawn. The opera’s creators cited an irreconcilable conflict with the current presidential administration and its replacement of The Kennedy Center’s leadership.
The opera Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce explores the anti-gay Lavender Scare of the 1950s, during which suspected and actual gay U.S. federal employees were forced from their positions, allegedly due to suspicions that their sexuality might make them vulnerable to blackmail by fellow agents.
A note explaining the decision to cancel Fellow Travelers – which was to have been staged by Washington National Opera, the resident opera company at The Kennedy Center – was signed by director Kevin Newbury, producer Jecca Barry, composer Gregory Spears, librettist Greg Pierce, and the novelist Thomas Mallon.
The statement says: « Up Until Now Collective and the creative team of Fellow Travelers are grateful to Washington National Opera, and its leaders Tim O’Leary and Francesca Zambello, for its enthusiastic embrace of the opera, and for its efforts to mount a presentation next season.
However, as the final considerations for that production approached, we have wrestled with our conflicting emotions about bringing the work to the Kennedy Center at this time.
Regrettably, we have decided that we cannot move forward. Fellow Travelers is a love story set against the ruthless purging of LGBTQ+ people from the State Department in the 1950s. It has become one of the most produced operas of its generation – with 14 productions from America’s biggest cities to her heartland. The expansion of freedom and liberty for all people are core values of the opera and the book upon which it is based. The current administration’s takeover of the Kennedy Center and many of its policies contradict those values…. »
