One of the first things my wife and I did after moving from Singapore to Palo Alto was to become subscribers to the San Francisco Opera (SFO). At that time Lotfi Mansouri was General Director, and he was not shy about commissioning new works. The first of those works that we saw was Harvey Milk, composed by Stewart Wallace with a libretto by Michael Korie. The production was shared by the Houston Grand Opera (whose General Director, David Gockley, would move to SFO in 2005) and New York City Opera.
I had seen the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk shortly after it was released in 1984, so I had no trouble following Korie’s narrative. I was not that enthusiastic about the music, but I was content enough to allow that it served the libretto well. Thus, when I learned about a month ago that the next Opera Parallèle production would be entitled Harvey Milk Reimagined, I could not be anything other than curious! The original three-act version had been (to mix metaphors) “tightened up” and “distilled” into a two-act libretto; and the score has been revised to accommodate changes in both cast and action.
Michael Kelly in the role of Harvey Milk (courtesy of Opera Parallèle)
The performances will take place at the Blue Shield of California Theater in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA). Yerba Buena will also present a display, which will include both “historical ephemera” and a selection of some of Milk’s personal artifacts. The latter will include both photographs and campaign materials. The title role will be sung by baritone Michael Kelly; and tenor Christopher Oglesby will portray Milk’s assassin, Dan White.
This production will receive four performances at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, and Friday, June 6, 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 1, and 5 p.m., on Saturday, June 7. All tickets may be purchased through a single City Box Office Web page. Ticket prices are from $66 to $188 with a special $35 rate for those under the age of 35.
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