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Q & A: Gregory Spears on ‘Fellow Travelers’ & His Upcoming Opera ‘Sleepers Awake’

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Q & A: Gregory Spears on ‘Fellow Travelers’ & His Upcoming Opera ‘Sleepers Awake’ By Francisco SalazarComposer Gregory Spears is in the middle of celebrating his breakthrough opera “Fellow Travelers,” which premiered 10 years ago. The opera, which is based on the Thomas Mallon novel set in Washington D.C., during the McCarthy era of the 1950s and focuses on the “lavender scare,” a witch hunt and m...
The strongest version of this narrative highlights Gregory Spears’ ability to bridge historical drama and existential inquiry through opera, making complex themes accessible while maintaining artistic depth. His work *Fellow Travelers* succeeds by grounding its story in relatable, ordinary characters—a technique Spears explicitly ties to Puccini’s verismo tradition—while *Sleepers Awake* pushes into more abstract, philosophical territory. The article effectively steelmans Spears’ artistic vision...