GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

August 4, 1995

Evenings Out

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FROM WOODMERE L.I.

An opera celebrates the struggle of day

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Harvey Milk and his bearded lover Scott Smith (Robert Orth and Bradley Williams. center) march on Gay Pride Day against a backdrop of closet doors.

Harvey Milk

by Stewart Wallace

Libretto by Michael Korie

New York City Opera

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

In 1977, Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in this country. A year later, on November 27, 1978, Milk was assassinated by his fellow San Francisco city supervisor, Dan White. In the history of the struggle for civil rights for gay people, Milk has become an almost mythical figure: a martyr whose story neatly represents key aspects of the history of homosexuality in the United States from the end of World War II through the 1970s.

Milk is currently the protagonist of an opera by Stewart Wallace with a libretto by Michael Korie that has been coproduced by the Houston Grand Opera (where it premiered in January), the New York City Opera (where is was given three performances in April), and the San Francisco Opera (where it will be performed in November). Much has been made in the gay press of the event.

Harvey Milk is an opera that celebrates the struggle for gay rights, commissioned by mainstream opera houses. I admit that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the audience enter the New York State Theatre for the last of the New York performances of the opera.

There were more men than women and many more gay people than straights filling the red and gold auditorium. The house was alive with the spirit of solidarity and pride.

Harvey Milk begins with a somber prologue depicting the murder in City Hall in 1978. Present in this scene are the young Harvey Milk, his mother, who represents his Jewish heritage, and a mysterious, bare-chested man, who is called the "messenger" in the program. Act I, "The Closet," portrays Milk's closeted gay life prior to 1969. The teenage Milk frequents the standing room section of New York's Old Metropolitain Opera and cruises in Central Park. The mature Milk is a Wall Street broker leading a double life. He is radicalized and brought out of the closet in the late 1960s by his hippie lover, Scott Smith. The act moves from police raids in Central Park in the 1940s to the Stonewall Riot in 1969.

Act II, "The Castro," takes place in San Francisco in the 1970s. The blue-collar neighborhood around Castro Street has become the legendary gay mecca, and Milk has become the self-proclaimed Mayor of Castro Street. After a failed attempt to run for city office, Milk is elected in November 1977 as the supervisor for District 5. He is the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the United States.

The last act, "City Hall," introduces us to the reality of city politics and demonstrates Milk's unstinting advocacy of minority interests. Conservative and homophobic fellow supervisor Dan White is increasingly frustrated by Milk's successes, and the support he receives from Mayor George Moscone.

After White's grisly shootings of Moscone and Milk, the opera concludes with the candelight march down Market Street. Milk has been taken to a platform overlooking the stage by the Messenger, and watches the march. His mother and the young Harvey from Act I are present on the forestage.

Christopher Alden's staging of Harvey Milk is highly theatrical and often effective. The set by Paul Steinberg is a triangular platform whose apex is upstage center. High white walls converge at the apex. The left wall has a row of (closet) doors; the right wall has a large window with a Venetian blind.

Props are added to modify the space: a large head of Maria Callas covers the window for the opera scenes; a large pink arrow sign points to the Castro; the blind with light filtering in bands across the stage turns the space into City Hall. Costumes, by Gabriel Berry, are somber in Act I and burst into psychedelic color in Act II.

Many of the images in Harvey Milk are unforgettable for a gay audience. There are scenes of cruising in Central Park; a party of closeted queers in Manhattan in the 1950s; the Stonewall riots; men embracing and making love; Gay Pride marches in San Francisco in the 1970s; and also the all-too-frequent gay bashing.

Drag queens, leathermen, clones in jeans and plaid shirts, and dykes populate the stage. Same sex couples abound. The police are a constant ominous presence, punctuated by their repeated refrain, “Faggots.”

The cast is an excellent group of singers who can act. Bass Gideon Saks is fine as Moscone and other minor parts. Raymond Very's strong tenor makes for a chilling Dan White. Bradley Williams has a sweet tenor that is perfect for the role of Scott Smith, Milk's supportive lover. Baritone Robert Orth proves to be an accomplished actor in the arduous role of Milk.

Despite its many virtues, Harvey Milk cannot be counted a success. Korie's text necessarily abbreviates and conflates certain facts, but it fails to bring to life Milk and the important figures in his world. Attempts to generalize Milk's story and make him a gay everyman are pretentious and obvious.

The interweaving of the oppression of Jews with the oppression of gays in Act I belies the fact that Milk was hardly a devout Jew.

Trying to touch almost every base makes the action schematic and doesn't allow for the dramatic development of character: the result is more pageant than drama, a fact that is heightened by the staging.

The greatest failure of Harvey Milk is the totally undistinguished music by Stewart Wallace. After Act I, I quipped to my friend, "It sounds like Leonard Bernstein on a bad hair day." I can think of almost no moment in the score that gave any depth or resonance to the feelings of the characters or the themes of the action. Throughout, the effect was of watching a film with a second-rate soundtrack-albeit orchestrated with a knowledge of the classical idiom. The inculsion of pop material generally fell flat through the sheer innocuousness of the composing.

I doubt that Harvey Milk will be more than a footnote in opera history. It remains, however, an important event for the gay community as it marks another significant representation of our lives and culture in the mainstream.