C-4 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE PRIDE GUIDE 1998

Opera of Milk's life misses on his personal moments

Harvey Milk

An opera in three acts Music by Stewart Wallace Libretto by Michael Korie Teldec 0630-15856-2

Reviewed by Richard Berrong

Since several of America's leading contemporary opera composers are gay, gays constitute a significant portion of American opera-goers, and a major trend in American opera since John Adams' Nixon in China is to focus on contemporary figures, an opera about the life and death of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk was an obvious choice.

The work has already had four productions in San Francisco, Houston, New York,

and Dortmund, Germany. With this recording, it becomes accessible to a far wider audience. It would be wonderful to say that it is a masterpiece, which it is not, but it is still worth attention, and some of it should provide gay listeners of almost any kind of music real enjoyment.

The best parts of the opera, and definitely the most memorable musical moments, are the big ensemble numbers. Wallace has a gift for catchy, upbeat rhythms and contrasting choruses, so the Stonewall Riots at the end of Act I and the Gay Pride Parade at the end of Act II really come to life. The chorus of drag queens in the first finale is particularly memorable. The ensemble numbers also give a good sense of Milk's importance not only in the gay community, but in San Francisco as a whole.

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A great opera fan himself, Harvey Milk (right) chats with Mayor George Moscone at the San Francisco Opera in 1978.

Wallace can also intensify the drama of a scene. Fellow supervisor Dan White's murder of Milk and Mayor George Moscone is bone-chillingly set, and some of the last-act finale, a memorial service for Milk, is moving. Overall, the music is eclectic, recalling everything from Porgy and Bess and Broadway to The Ghosts of Versailles.

Unfortunately, the work is not as successful with the personal moments. The solos for Milk and White have no memorable music, and so do nothing to make the characters come to life.

More disappointing still is the bedroom scene for Milk and his lover Scott at the end of Act II. This was an opportunity for a truly moving and memorable love duet between two men that would have been a first for opera. But the music never soars, and never draws the audience into two gay men's feelings for one another.

This is connected, at least in part, to one of the problems with the libretto. Harvey and Scott spend their time in the bedroom discussing Milk's political career; the text never abandons plot development for lyrical expansion, as librettos in traditional operas do.

Similarly, Scott never gets a chance at the end of the opera, as he would have in a more traditional structure, to express his grief at Harvey's loss.

This is particularly disappointing in an opera with a gay focus, as one of the things

many gay men enjoy about opera is that it can offer an emotional expansion that society too often denies men in general, and gay men in particular. After years of reinterpreting some of opera's male-male duets, such as those in The Pearl Fishers and Don Carlo, with a gay slant, it would have been gratifying to have a passionate duet that spoke directly about gay love.

Another problem with the libretto, at least for some listeners, may be seen as an asset by others. Unlike traditional operas, with clearcut moral issues, heros and villains, Harvey Milk offers balanced portraits of both the title character and Dan White. Milk is sometimes brash and compromising; White's two solos, at least with their words, go a long way toward marking him an understandable and even sympathetic character.

While this may be equitable, it lessens potential sympathy or empathy for Milk when he is shot at the end, creating something very different from the traditional operatic experience.

While Harvey Milk may leave some gay listeners with mixed feelings, its high points-the three finales and a scene in the Castro district-should make this a very enjoyable listening experience for many. It may even inspire some enterprising local group to give the work its area première, so that it can be experienced in the theater, and make its full impact.

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