As part of our commitment to support emerging American works and talent, Opera Columbus will present Fellow Travelers. Set during the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington, D.C., newly graduated Timothy Laughlin is passionate about joining the fight against communism. After a fortuitous encounter with suave and attractive State Department official Hawkins Fuller, Tim secures his first job and coincidentally his first love affair with a man. Fellow Travelers, based on the novel by Thomas Mallon, follows Tim as he battles his political convictions and forbidden love during the “lavender scare,” a witch hunt and mass firings of gay people from the United States government. Fellow Travelers has passion, secrecy, and betrayal — and just about everything you want in a new opera.
“One of the most accomplished New American Operas.”
– JOHN VON RHEIN for the Chicago Tribune
The opera’s intense storyline will be brought to life by performers of equal greatness. Don Giovanni’s remarkable Kelly Kuo will conduct and OPERA America Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize winner Bruno Baker will direct the stellar cast. Brian Vu will make his Opera Columbus debut as the fiery Timothy Laughlin, and beloved OC favorites Carl DuPont and Meghan Kasanders will star as Hawkins Fuller and Mary Johnson respectively. Original Production & Staging by Peter Rothstein for Minnesota Opera.
Fellow Travelers will be sung in English with English titles.
Fellow Travelers is not recommended for patrons under the age of 13.
Performance time is approximately 130 minutes including one 15-minute intermission.
#FellowOC
Subscriptions and single tickets for the 2021-2022 season are on sale NOW!
COVID-19 SAFETY GUIDELINES
We adhere to state and federal COVID-19 safety recommendations. Beginning in October 2021, attendees of all Opera Columbus events are required to be fully masked regardless of vaccination status. Additionally, attendees of all Opera Columbus events are required to present a valid ID and proof of COVID-19 vaccination (in the form of an immunization card or photo proof of one) or negative PCR test results obtained no more than 72 hours before the event.
In order to streamline entry, CAPA encourages you to use the Bindle App, a free, secure, easy to use digital pass for entrance to their venues. Click here to learn how to set up Bindle, which securely stores your negative test status or vaccination record and allows more efficient entry into the venues.
Use of this app will speed the health screening process at venue entrances, allowing you to reach your seats faster! We are doing all we can to efficiently provide a safe environment in which to enjoy the performing arts.
Use of Bindle is NOT REQUIRED, and no health information is shared with Bindle or CAPA. You can safely store your COVID-19 test results and vaccine records using Bindle’s military-grade encryption, keeping personal identity and health information strictly private.
To read more about CAPA’s safety protocol, click here.
*Guidelines are subject to change
FELLOW TRAVELERS: MEET THE AUTHOR + COMPOSER
Columbus Metropolitan Library and Opera Columbus present a casual conversation with author Thomas Mallon and composer Gregory Spears.
Saturday, Feb. 26
Main Library Auditorium
9 a.m. | Library opens
9:30 a.m. | Auditorium doors open
10 a.m. | Talk with author Thomas Mallon and Gregory Spears
10: 45 a.m. | Audience Q&A
Columbus Metropolitan Library and Opera Columbus present a casual conversation with Fellow Travelers author Thomas Mallon and Fellow Travelers opera composer Gregory Spears. Mallon and Spears will offer insight about the book and translating a book into an opera.
EVENT DETAILS
Free parking available in Main Library’s attached garage. Library opens at 9 a.m. and the program will begin at 10 a.m. in the Auditorium.
The event is free to the public but seating will be limited to ensure social distancing.
**Masks are required to be worn at all times by order of the City of Columbus and Library Board of Trustees.**
CAST
Described by The New York Times as having an “ample and pleasing tone,” tenor Brian Vu is an exciting performer recognized for his vocal and dramatic abilities. During the 2020-21 season, Mr. Vu made his tenor debut with the Atlanta Opera as Soldier in Der Kaiser von Atlantis and in a concert of Kurt Weill repertoire and joined Opera Omaha/LA Opera for their new recording of David Hertzberg’s The Rose Elfas The Beloved/Horus. He was also slated to return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing the Journalist in Lulu, and cover the Huntsman in Rusalka and Novice’s Friend in Billy Budd (COVID19). In the summer of 2021, Mr. Vu will be a fellow at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute and in the spring of 2022, he will make his Opera Columbus debut singing Timothy Laughlin in Fellow Travelers.
Mr. Vu has participated as an Apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera, Young Artist at the Glimmerglass Festival, Vocal Fellow in Marilyn Horne’s Music Academy of the West and is a former member of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio. He has received numerous accolades including being named the first place winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition, a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a recipient of the Sullivan Foundation Award, third prize in the Gerda Lissner Lieder competition, and a major prize winner in the Opera Index Competition, among others.
Mr. Vu holds a BA from UCLA and an MM and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music.
Carl DuPont is an artist, innovator and educator dedicated to Transformational Inclusion in the arts and Care of the Professional Voice. He has held center stage in performances at The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Carolina, First Coast Opera, Toledo Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, El Palacio de Bellas Artes, Opera Company of Brooklyn, The In Series, Carnegie Hall and Leipzig Opera. He has been invited to present research and recitals in Salzburg, Rome, Stockholm, New York, Portland, and Miami. This season Carl is excited to return to Opera Columbus in this production of Fellow Travelers after previously appearing here in productions of The Barber of Seville and Don Giovanni. Later he will debut with Bach in Baltimore in the title role of Elijah and in recital at The Kennedy Center.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and the University of Miami, Carl currently serves as a voice professor at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where he has developed a course on art song by African American composers, co-chairs the Culturally Inclusive Task Force, and serves on the Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee. He also creates and leads dynamic workshops in the private and public sector as a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business Executive Education team. His articles can be found in The Laryngoscope and Voice and Speech Review and he can be heard on the world premiere recording of the Caldara Mass in A Major, The Death of Webern, and his solo album of art songs by Black composers entitled The Reaction.
As CEO/founder of DuPont Consulting, LLC, he leverages his research, expertise, and compassion to design and implement strategic initiatives in diversity, equity, and inclusion. This includes training, programming, and talent acquisition within academic and performing arts institutions.
Soprano Meghan Kasanders has been hailed by Opera News as “a wonderfully promising, rich dramatic soprano”. She begins the 21/22 season with a debut at Opera Ithaca in Hansel and Gretel (Mother/Witch) and returns to Staatsoper Hannover for Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud), Opera Columbus for Fellow Travelers (Mary Johnson), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for The Magic Flute (First Lady). On the concert stage she will debut with the Lubbock Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Last season she made debuts at Opera Columbus in Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) and Raylynmor Opera in Falstaff (Alice Ford) and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Gianni Schicchi (Nella) and Des Moines Metro Opera as guest soloist in A Concert for Robert.
Meghan debuted the title role in Anna Bolena with Baltimore Concert Opera and made her European debut in Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud) with Staatsoper Hannover. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing in Bernstein’s Songfest with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop and debuted at Opera Saratoga in their critically acclaimed production of The Consul (Magda). She also performed Sibelius’ Luonnotar, Barbara Hannigan conducting, in Alice Tully Hall (NYC) and Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) at The Juilliard School. Ms. Kasanders is a 2019 Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and both the First Prize and Audience Choice Winner in Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. She has also been recognized by the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition (Second Prize and Audience Choice), and the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition, where she won first prize in 2017 as the youngest competitor.
Meghan’s training has included past resident artist apprenticeships with International Meistersinger Akademie (Neumarkt, Germany), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Kasanders holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College, a Master of Music degree from Rice University, and an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School, where she was the recipient of The Richard F. Gold Career Grant.
Calvin Griffin, a native of Columbus, Ohio, has been hailed as “outstanding” by Opera News and was commended for his “voluminous bass-baritone” by South Florida Classical Review. During the 2020/2021 season he returned to The Atlanta Opera for their acclaimed tent series in performances of Der Kaiser von Atlantis, and Carmen, made his Opera Theatre of St. Louis debut in their Outdoor Festival season, appearing in their “New Works, Bold Voices Lab” in the World Premieres of Laura Karpman and Taura Stinson’s On the Edge and The Tongue and the Lash by Damien Sneed and Karen Chilton, and returned to Wolf Trap Opera as Death in Gustav Holst’s Savitri. Other recent highlights include the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with both Florentine Opera and Florida Grand Opera, Handel’s Messiah with the Columbus, Richmond and Virginia Symphonies, Eddie in The Fix with Minnesota Opera, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Gomez in L’heure espagnole with Wolf Trap Opera, and his Metropolitan Opera debut singing Brühlmann in Werther. The 2021/2022 season will see his return to the Metropolitan Opera and his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones, his return home to Opera Columbus as Tommy in Fellow Travelers, as well as concert appearances in both Columbus, Ohio and Sarasota, Florida.
Justin T. Swain, baritone, serves as an Adjunct Professor of Voice at Ohio University (Athens), owns and operates a thriving music school in North Columbus (Musicologie Lewis Center), and is a graduate of The Ohio State University where he earned his MM and BM in Vocal Performance and MA in Vocal Pedagogy studying with Dr. Scott McCoy and Dr. Robin Rice.
A Columbus native, Mr. Swain has served as Opera Columbus’ Teaching Artist (2018-2020) and was most recently seen playing the roles of Senator Joseph McCarthy, Interrogator, and Estonian Frank in Opera Columbus’ production of Fellow Travelers. Mr. Swain maintains an active performance career in the Central Ohio region having made appearances with the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, McConnell Arts Chamber Orchestra, Opera Project Columbus, Harmony Project Columbus, the Denison University Wind Ensemble, in a variety of productions with the Ohio State University Opera Lyric Theatre, the Ohio State University Wind Ensemble, the Ohio Wesleyan Chamber Ensemble, the Columbus Italian Festival, as well as a myriad of mainstage, education outreach, and chorister roles with Opera Columbus.
Adia Evans+
Praised for her “big, beautiful voice with an attractive edge and sparkle” soprano, Adia Evans is quickly establishing herself as an up-and-coming operatic talent. During her tenure in Knoxville, Evans has been featured as Adina in University of Tennessee Opera Theater (UTOT)’s production of L’elisir d’amore, Laetita in Old Maid and the Thief, Ms. Dara in An Embarrassing Position, and La Zia in Knoxville Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly. This year, Evans won Second Place and Audience Choice in the Harlem Opera Theater Vocal Competition and Fourth Place and Audience Choice in Opera Columbus’s Cooper-Bing Competition.
Evans holds a Bachelor of Music from University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Music from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Evans is a proud alumna of the Baltimore School for the Arts. Devoted to social action and advocacy, Evans completed two terms as an AmeriCorps member in Washington DC, through Public Allies. She works in diversity and inclusion, volunteer engagement, education and arts administration when she is not on the stage.
Robert J. Kerr
Known for his stage savvy, Robert Kerr’s foundation in opera began in musical theater. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote of his Falstaff: “He made words matter and conveyed the self-delusion of this likable laughingstock… “. Known to Opera Columbus audiences, Robert Kerr returns this season in Tosca and Fellow Travelers. His past performances with the company include the King in Aida; the world première of The Flood by Korine Fujiwara with libretto by Stephen Wadsworth; the title role of Gianni Schicchi; and, Tonio in Pagliacci. Notable credits include a return to Rose Theater with Atsushi Yamada conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra of New York in an all-Verdi concert; he was Pooh-Bah in The Mikado with Performance Santa Fe!; the title role of Rigoletto with Opera Projects Columbus in addition to the title role in Gianni Schicchi with the company. He has been heard as Germont in La traviata with the Philharmonia Orchestra of New York at Lincoln Center and as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem; and, has appeared with the local symphonies on numerous occasions. In prior seasons, Mr. Kerr returned to Japan for engagements in performances of Requiem by Minoru Miki in Natori and reprising the work at Rose Theater at Lincoln Center; he has covered the role of the King in El Gato con Botas with Gotham Chamber Opera; and, was soloist with the New York City Opera Orchestra in a Japan tour of Carmina Burana. Other engagements include his appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors with Sondra Radvanovsky and Joseph Calleja in an Aida tribute to honoree, Martina Arroyo. Equally at home in musical theater, Mr. Kerr has sung King Hildebrand in Princess Ida with So. Ohio Light Opera; the role of Peachum in The Threepenny Opera with Amarillo Opera; and Pooh-Bah in The Mikado.
CREATIVE
Gregory Spears*
Gregory Spears is a New York-based composer whose music has been called “astonishingly beautiful” (The New York Times), “coolly entrancing” (The New Yorker), and “some of the most beautifully unsettling music to appear in recent memory” (The Boston Globe). In recent seasons he has been commissioned by The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, Volti, BMI/Concert Artists Guild, Vocal Arts DC, New York Polyphony, The New York International Piano Competition, and the JACK Quartet among others. His latest opera, “Castor and Patience”, written with U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith was commissioned by Cincinnati Opera for their 100th Anniversary and is scheduled for premiere in 2022 (postponed from its original premiere date in 2020 due to COVID-19).
Spears’ opera, “Fellow Travelers”‘, written in collaboration with Greg Pierce, premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 and was subsequently produced at the Prototype Festival (NYC), The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Minnesota Opera, Madison Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Arizona Opera. It will be seen this season at Des Moines Metro Opera and Columbus Opera. It was hailed as “one of the most accomplished new operas I have seen in recent years” (Chicago Tribune) and an opera that “seems assured of lasting appeal” (The New York Times). The premiere was featured in The New York Times’ Best in Classical Music for 2016, and Cincinnati Opera released a commercial CD recording in 2017.
Spears’ first opera, “Paul’s Case”, written in collaboration with Kathryn Walat, was described as a “masterpiece” and a “gem” (New York Observer) with “ravishing music” (The New York Times). It was developed by American Opera Projects and premiered by Urban Arias in 2013. The opera was restaged at the Prototype Festival in New York, and presented in a new production by Pittsburgh Opera in 2014. “Paul’s Case” was released on National Sawdust’s record label featuring the original cast in 2019. Spears’ children’s opera “Jason and the Argonauts”, also written with Kathryn Walat, premiered in 2016 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and was subsequently performed for over 20,000 school children. An opera about space exploration, “O Columbia”, written with Royce Vavrek, premiered in 2015 at Houston Grand Opera.
Recent commissions include a new vocal work, “The Bitter Good”, commissioned by New York Polyphony — made possible by a 2016 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program grant, as well as “The Tower and the Garden” for a consortium of choirs including The Crossing underwritten by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music. Spears also recently completed a “Double Trumpet Concerto” for Concert Artists Guild and the soundtrack for the British feature film “Macbeth” (Kit Monkman, director) featuring 18th-century instruments. His “Requiem” was released by New Amsterdam records in 2011.
Other commissions have come from Bang on a Can, Five Boroughs Music Festival, OPERA America, poet Tracy K. Smith, Christopher Williams Dances, the Dalton School Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, The New York Youth Symphony, pianist Marika Bournaki, the Present Music Ensemble, New Vintage Baroque, the Damask Ensemble, and the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra. He has been an artist-in-residence at Yaddo, MacDowell, the Aaron Copland House, the Rauschenberg Residency at Captiva Island, and was a participant and later a composer mentor for The American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice program. He holds degrees in composition from Eastman School of Music (BM), Yale School of Music (MM), and Princeton (PhD). He also studied as a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen with Hans Abrahamsen. He currently teaches composition and orchestration at Purchase College Conservatory (SUNY). His music is published by Schott Music and Schott PSNY.
Greg Pierce*
Bruno Baker
Luther Lewis III is a multidisciplinary artist, singer, teacher and stage director within Classical Voice/Opera, Theater and Visual Art and is currently the Crane Directing Fellow at Opera Columbus. He has appeared with several major Opera companies in supporting and chorus roles including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cincinnati Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera de Montreal, as well as international tours in Austria, France, Germany, Israel, South America, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. In 2018, he presented an Art Gallery Concert featuring his illustrations of legendary African American Opera singers at the iconic Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in collaboration with Chicago Opera Theater. Luther has studied Vocal Performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Kentucky as well as Visual Art Studio at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sara Brown*
Sara Brown is a set designer for theater, opera, and dance. Selected designs include The Day at Jacob’s Pillow; Hagoromo at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Fellow Travelers and La Rondine at the Minnesota Opera; World of Wires at The Kitchen in NYC and Festival d’Automne in Paris; Prince of Providence at Trinity Repertory company in Providence, RI; Der Freischütz with Heartbeat Opera in NYC; The Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upcoming projects include Champion with Boston Lyric Opera and Common Ground Revisited at the Huntington Theater. She is an Assistant Professor at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Music and Theater Arts. You can see samples of her work at www.sarabdesign.com.
Mary Shabatura*
Mary Shabatura is a Minneapolis-based lighting designer, artist, and theater technician.
She has worked with the Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Theater Latté Da, Mixed Blood Theater, Trademark Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Moving Company, Dark & Stormy Productions, Teatro del Pueblo, Transatlantic Love Affair, SHAPESHIFT DANCE, the University of Minnesota, The Guthrie Theater, and many others.
*Opera Columbus debut
+Opera Columbus/Capital University Resident Artist
