在最近的过去，波士顿歌剧院热情地发挥了其浮动状况。通过在大学体育馆等非传统场所展示引人注目的歌剧，该公司获得了良好的赞誉，而且似乎吸引了一个好奇的新观众。同性恋浪漫的悲剧“旅行者”代表了本日历年的第一场演出，在传统的礼堂，即艾默生派拉蒙中心的罗伯特·J·乌节舞台上。有了它，该公司的连胜纪录已经消失。

It would be disingenuous to characterize BLO’s successes in experimental staging as distractions, but at their best they did distract from a longstanding issue. New England’s premier professional opera company does not have a vocal-friendly stage to sing on, much less call its own, and that is already a serious setback. With manifold production issues diminishing the strong points of “Fellow Travelers,” the story and score’s own weaknesses were more readily on display.

自2016年在辛辛那提举行的世界首映以来，“旅行者”（由格雷格里·斯皮尔斯（Gregory Spears）创作的格雷戈里·斯皮尔斯（Gregory Spears），格雷格·皮尔斯（Greg Pierce）由格雷格·皮尔斯（Greg Pierce）组成）。基于托马斯·马隆（Thomas Mallon）的同名小说，“旅行者”的背景是薰衣草恐慌，麦卡锡时代的十字军东征对同性恋者和女同性恋者在联邦就业中的工作，费用约为5,000人工作。在当今的政治气氛中，同性恋或跨性别者仍然可以在许多州被解雇，歌剧很容易在其历史小说背景之外引起共鸣。

Our two lovers meet-cute on a Washington, D.C., park bench — Hawkins (“Hawk”) Fuller (baritone Jesse Blumberg), a worldly and callous picture of Brylcreemed manspreading masculinity; and Timothy Laughlin (tenor Jesse Darden), an Irish-Catholic babyface in thick glasses, a new boy in town so innocent that his drink of choice is milk.

Hawk treats his promiscuous gay assignations as a sweet escape from his public life, of a rising State Department career and (eventually) a wife and a house in the suburbs. Conversely, Hawk may call Timothy a “tiger cub,” but there’s nothing wild or libertine about the young man, who dreams of fairy-tale monogamy, with a brick house and matching towels. His devotion to his Holy Father easily maps onto a dreamy Daddy. This can’t end well, and it doesn’t. Through Hawk’s elite machinations, Tim is handed his longed-for ticket into a Capitol Hill job, a sexual awakening and first love, and ultimately an act of selfish betrayal that upends it all, which landed Hawk near the top of my list of opera men I’d most like to punch in the face.

极简主义的影响力在Spears的分数中留下了自己的印记，这在敌对的官僚机器（尽管有太多的短语和文本重复）的能量中向前搅动。但是，星期三晚上不是。由艾米丽·苏里亚里亚（Emily Senturia）指挥的小坑管弦乐队听起来彻头彻尾的贫血，大提琴和长笛经常出现。分数迫切需要的定义有节奏的脉搏不存在。

It seemed like something more serious than opening-night jitters was afoot, be that insufficient preparation, acoustic troubles, or a combination of the two. With that shaky orchestral foundation, ensemble scenes shambled, and the interrogation scene lacked all bite. Stage directed by Peter Rothstein, characters rarely ventured toward the front of the stage, and their voices were often lost under the orchestra.

The cast, however, was a stunner, full of familiar faces. Veterans of several BLO productions apiece, Blumberg and Darden inhabited their characters with poignant depth, and their scenes of clandestine intimacy vibrated with arresting chemistry and tension. The sets were imported from the Minnesota Opera; Sara Brown’s semicircle of stark gray columns simultaneously evoked imposing rotundas and prison bars, dwarfing every player — still, Blumberg’s matter-of-factly smoky voice, easy confidence, and perfectly cut dark suit combined to give Hawk an air of belonging among them. The baritone’s early music bona fides provided powerful grounding for his second-act soliloquy, a mournful troubadour song.

That moment was only outclassed by the one-two punch of the first love scene between the two then immediately followed by a melting solo from Darden’s Timothy the next morning in church, kneeling and trembling at the fertile crossroads of religious and carnal ecstasy, pride and guilt.

霍克·约翰逊（Mary Johnson）的助手玛丽·约翰逊（Mary Johnson），女高音·切尔西·巴斯勒（Soperano Chelsea Basler）制作了戏剧性的Coloratura Cartwheels，这与角色的实用思维定势从未听起来不协调。（那不在她身上。）她和文森特·特雷加诺（Vincent Turregano）是背景政治演奏者，是唯一比梅佐·弗特（Mezzo-Forte）大声疾呼的声音。

The cast was filled out by Michelle Trainor as a nosy, blowsy secretary; James Maddalena, Simon Dyer, and David McFerrin as a host of characters each (special kudos to wig & makeup designer Liz Printz for transforming the handsome McFerrin into a slimy interrogator and a hunched Sen. McCarthy). Current BLO emerging artist Brianna J. Robinson went above and beyond as Lucy, Hawk’s unwitting beard. With the trappings of nuclear family life cradled in her tender soprano voice, a role that could have been a bland cipher became its own tragedy within a tragedy.