Wednesday, June 04, 2025

Harvey Milk Reimagined

 


Harvey Milk Reimagined
Photo by Cory Weaver, courtesy of Opera Parallèle


The original Harvey Milk, by composer Stewart Wallace and librettist Michael Korie, was a co-commission of San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and New York City Opera. It made its way around the country, opening in Houston (Edward Rothstein, NY Times), then playing in NY (Bernard Holland, NY Times, then finally coming to San Francisco (Joshua Kosman, S.F. Chronicle). Between New York and San Francisco, some revisions were made by the composer with input from conductor Donald Runnicles, who led the S.F. performances and was then music director of SFO (that's from Joshua Kosman's review, a detail that stuck in my mind, though not the source, from 1996 until a couple of weeks ago, when I re-read that review).

Now it's been further revised, on commission from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Opera Parallèle, and it's playing in San Francisco again.

It's interesting that Joshua, Harvey, and myself all think that the revised version is overloaded. 

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2 comments:

Vajra said...

I understand your concerns and I know that on opening night the volume was almost painful for such a small house. I loved it because it touched me and brought me to tears. Perhaps it's because I was in San Francisco that horrible day. Perhaps it's because Jonathan Joss was murdered a couple of days ago by a homophobic creep as he and his husband were grieving the decapitation of their dog. Because DEI hire Hesgeth is removing the names of Harvey Milk, Dolores Huerta, Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez and Harriet Tubman from Navy ships while again honoring Confederate traitors by resurrecting their names on military bases. What does this have to do with the opera? For me, who am not a music scholar, everything. Just as my heart was moved last night at La Boheme, so, too, did the tears flow while I watched Harvey Milk. Perhaps it's not chic to cry at the opera, but I do. And I can only say 'thank you' to the people who bring this music to me and who bring me to the opera.

June 4, 2025 at 9:15:00 PM PDT
Lisa Hirsch said...

I'm glad that the opera was moving and meaningful to you in those ways.

I read about Hegseth's actions yesterday: they are disgusting and he is a disgrace, not fit to be mentioned alongside people like Milk, Huerta, and so on.

June 4, 2025 at 9:59:00 PM PDT

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