Opera Parallèle's Harvey Milk Reimagined

* Notes *
A revised and reorchestrated version of Stewart Wallace's Harvey Milk (pictured, photograph by Cory Weaver) was presented by Opera Parallèle at YBCA Theater in San Francisco Saturday night. Conducted by Nicole Paiement, the high-volume work sounded crystalline and Brian Staufenbiel's production uses the space efficiently.

The narrative follows the life of Harvey Milk, member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 and gay rights icon. We start with his death at City Hall and then follow his life chronologically from childhood in Windmere, New York to his adulthood in New York City and San Francisco. 

Wallace's music was flattened by amplification. The singers are all quite loud, as was the orchestra. It was disconcerting as there were many characters and at times it was difficult to discern who was singing. Maestra Nicole Paiement, as always, shaped the music beautifully and brought out many colors from each instrument. Because Harvey Milk was a great fan of opera and he attends goes to the Met and San Francisco Opera within the plot, we hear snippets of Puccini and Wagner. It solidified my wish to hear Paiement conduct a Ring cycle. I'm sorely tempted to go hear her conduct Jenůfa in Montreal this November.

The inventive production, from Brian Staufenbiel, uses the vertical space of the stage. There are a number of stairs that can be combined with each other in different configurations and many doors hanging from the ceiling that could be projected on to change the scenes.

The singers were uniformly strong. Even the smaller roles were cast meticulously. Tenor Curtis Resnick has a lovely, sweet sound as the Young Harvey and mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook gave her part as Mama an intensity and pathos. I especially liked soprano Chea Kang as Henrietta Wong, her pure voice is very attractive.

Soprano Marnie Breckenridge has a powerful sound as Dianne Feinstein, as did bass Matt Boehler as George Moscone. Both also sang other smaller roles within the opera but characterized each seamlessly.

The tenors were distinctive. Christopher Oglesby made for a blustering but also plaintive antagonist Dan White, while Henry Benson is charming as Milk's lover Scott Smith. Baritone Michael Kelly is convincing in the title role, his physicality is spot on and his voice conveys much emotion.

* Tattling *
There was a surprising amount of chatter during the performance, at least at the beginnings of each act, but no electronic noise was noted.

It was a posh crowd for the opening night. Composer Jake Heggie and author Amy Tan were both spotted.