Fellow Travelers Opera Will Make Its DC Debut in 2028, Following Washington National Opera's Withdrawal From the Kennedy Center

The national, multi-year tour of the opera Fellow Travelers launched in February and March with performances at Seattle Opera and Portland Opera. This initiative, one of the largest consortium projects ever attempted in the US opera industry, continues this summer with performances at San Diego Opera (July 10-12) and New York’s Glimmerglass Festival (July 18-August 16), and in 2027 with the opera’s Texas premiere at Austin Opera (February 6-7).

The opera will now debut in the nation’s capital, where much of the story is set, in March 2028 with Washington National Opera. Fellow Travelers was originally scheduled for WNO’s 2025–26 season at its former home, the Kennedy Center. The creators and producers chose to withdraw the work prior to the season announcement, citing concerns that the opera’s themes of liberty, dignity, and freedom for all no longer aligned with the values reflected by the new Kennedy Center leadership. As previously reported, Washington National Opera cut ties with the Kennedy Center, its home since 1971.

Based on Thomas Mallon’s bestselling 2007 novel, the opera is set against the backdrop of a forgotten chapter of LGBTQ+ history known as the “Lavender Scare” and speaks to the experiences of those who were banned from government employment and subject to investigations because of their sexuality. Created by composer Gregory Spears, librettist Greg Pierce, and director Kevin Newbury, Fellow Travelers premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2016.

The opera focuses on recent college graduate Timothy Laughlin, who arrives in 1950s Washington, DC, ready to join the fight against Communism. As Tim starts a romance with the handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, Tim struggles to reconcile his newfound love with his political, personal, and religious beliefs, and Hawkins comes under the watchful eye of McCarthyism.