There's much to like in 'Fellow Travelers,' the latest big risk by Arizona Opera

Arizona Opera is not shy about taking artistic risks.

The company in recent years mounted the first-ever mariachi opera, a flamenco opera and, just last month, an opera based on the true story of a brutal mass murder at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin estate.

Over the weekend, the company took perhaps its biggest risk yet, staging the Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce opera “Fellow Travelers,” which tackles the controversial Lavender Scare, an effort to purge gays from government employment in the 1950s McCarthy era.

Arizona is only the fourth company to stage the piece, which the Cincinnati Opera premiered in 2016.

Set in 1950s Washington, D.C., “Fellow Travelers” centers on two lovers — the older more experienced Hawk, who works for the State Department; and the younger, more naive Tim, an idealist from New York who lands a job with a pro-McCarthy senator.

Hawk (the charismatic, mellow-voiced baritone Joseph Lattanzi, who has sung the role in the three previous productions) initially views the relationship as one in a long line of trysts that he keeps wink-wink private from his work life. But this is a first for Tim (the youthful toned tenor Jonas Hacker), who goes all in with visions of the picket fence and domestic bliss, even if it’s kept in secret. Tim also battles to square the guilt from his Catholic upbringing with his unrelenting desire to be with Hawk.

The relationship is set against the backdrop of McCarthyism, which pitted American against American in Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s attempt to root Communists and Communist sympathizers from 1950s society. McCarthy also took aim at so-called “pansies” in the government’s employ, gays who McCathy’s committee contended could become targets of blackmail by Communists and others to keep their secret lives secret.

The story, at times subtly erotic and crushingly sad, is moved along by Spears’ lush, near cinematic score.

Conductor Daniela Candillari, in her Arizona Opera debut, brought rich color to Spears’ American minimalist style that also borrows from what he described as medieval troubadour singing. Candillari emphasized the pulsing rhythmic passages and repetitive riffs, including a soaring clarinet to create the tension and menace Tim and Hawk were experiencing as the McCarthy hysteria hit close to home.

One of the unsung heroes in “Fellow Travelers” was Hawk’s assistant Mary, sung by the terrifically talented mezzo-soprano Katherine Beck, a member of Arizona Opera’s Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio program. Beck brought a convincing sincerity to the role of Hawk’s confidante and wishful-thinking love interest who quietly tries to warn Tim that when push comes to shove, Hawk will save his own skin. In the end, that’s exactly what he does, outing Tim to investigators to prevent him from getting a job with Hawk at the State Department.

“Fellow Travelers” closes out the 2019-20 McDougall Red Series of chamber operas. In February, the company opens its Main Stage series at Tucson Music Hall with Puccini’s “La Boheme.”