Product Overview
Harvey Milk - Stewart Wallace, Michael Korie, San Francisco Opera, Donald Runnicles / TELDEC 2x Audio CD
UPC 016301585627
Harvey Milk is an opera in three acts composed by Stewart Wallace to a libretto by Michael Korie. A joint commission by Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and San Francisco Opera, it was premiered on January 21, 1995 by Houston Grand Opera. The opera is based on the life and death of the gay activist and politician Harvey Milk who was assassinated along with San Francisco's mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978.
Wallace and Korie had revised the opera considerably for the San Francisco performances. Working in collaboration with Donald Runnicles who would conduct the San Francisco performances and SFO's vocal coach Peter Grunberg, Wallace tightened the score, simplifying both the orchestration and the complicated rhythmic notation. The running time was cut from nearly three hours to just over two. Among the changes to the libretto were paring back the role of Dan White (Milk's assassin), trimming the final act, and the addition of two new arias for Harvey Milk. The revised version, now considered the definitive one, was premiered by San Francisco Opera at the Orpheum Theatre on November 9, 1996 and ran for eight performances. The principal roles were sung by the original Houston cast, apart from the role of Milk's mother which was sung by Elizabeth Bishop. In the Houston production, Juliana Gonderek had sung both that role and the role of Dianne Feinstein. The November 27 performance was timed to coincide with the 18th annual candlelight march through the city's Castro District commemorating the day Milk and San Francisco's mayor, George Moscone, were killed. The march ended in front of the Orpheum Theatre, and several of Milk's friends and associates appeared in the opera's Act 2 parade scene. The première San Francisco production of 1996 was recorded in November and later released on Teldec Records.
Tracklist:
| Act One: The Closet | ||
| Part 1 | ||
| 1-1 | Prologue: November 27, 1978 | 6:42 |
| 1-2 | Standing Room At The Old Met. New York City - The 1940's |
3:35 |
| 1-3 | Central Park At Midnight, The War Years | 4:23 |
| 1-4 | "An Angel Will Go Before You" | 1:47 |
|
Part 2 |
||
| 1-5 | Harvey's Walk-In Closet. New York City - The 1960's | 1:35 |
| 1-6 | "Closets Are A Necessary Fact Of Life" | 1:50 |
| 1-7 | "Poor Dear Is Beside Himself" | 2:58 |
| 1-8 | "You Don't Have To Stand There" | 3:16 |
| 1-9 | Standing Room At The New Met | 6:47 |
| 1-10 | "From Dust We Come" | 1:20 |
|
Part 3 |
||
| 1-11 | Christopher Street. The 1969 Stonewall Uprising | 3:25 |
| 1-12 | "We Are The Stonewall Girls!" | 0:48 |
| 1-13 | "Out Of The Closets And Into The Streets!" | 0:58 |
| 1-14 | "Out Of The Closets" ... "Remember This Moment" | 2:45 |
|
Act Two: The Castro |
||
| Part 1 | ||
| 1-15 | Castro Street. San Francisco - Early 1970's | 1:45 |
| 1-16 | "This Used To Be An Old Irish Neighborhood" | 3:59 |
| 1-17 | "Macho!" | 2:48 |
| 1-18 | "I Come From Woodmere, Long Island" | 2:17 |
|
Part 2 |
||
| 1-19 | A Street Campaign | 6:22 |
| 1-20 | "The Milk Train!" | 1:32 |
| 2-1 | Harvey And Scott's Bed | 6:21 |
| 2-2 | The Haircut | 2:25 |
|
Part 3 |
||
| 2-3 | Gay Bashing (The Hillsborough Murder) | 1:10 |
| 2-4 | "What We Have Here Is Not What It Seems" | 5:08 |
| 2-5 | "Thank You, San Francisco" | 2:29 |
| 2-6 | The Parade | 2:41 |
|
Act Three: City Hall |
||
| Part 1 | ||
| 2-7 | The Corridors Of Power | 2:14 |
| 2-8 | "These Are The Corridors Of Power" | 3:42 |
| 2-9 | "The Issue Of The Floor Is" ... "Not In My Backyard" | 2:25 |
| 2-10 | The Gay Rights' Bill | 1:03 |
| 2-11 |
"All In Favor?" ... "Aye!" | 1:09 |
|
Part 2 |
||
| 2-12 | November 10, 1978 | 3:13 |
| 2-13 | "Dan, You Idiot" ... "Easy Harvey - Don't Push" | 1:03 |
| 2-14 | Novemeber 14, 1978 | 2:02 |
| 2-15 | "Time Out! Did I Just Hear What I Heard?" | 4:50 |
|
Part 3 |
||
| 2-16 | The San Francisco Opera; Dan White's Barcalounger | 2:43 |
| 2-17 | "Harvey. Come Right Home" ... "Mama. There Are Things" | 3:44 |
| 2-18 | November 27, 1978 | 4:08 |
|
Kaddish |
||
| 2-19 | "When I Heard, I Was In A State Of Shock" | 11:43 |
- Chorus – San Francisco Opera Chorus
- Conductor – Donald Runnicles
- Edited By – Geoff Miles
- Engineer – Mike Hatch
- Executive-Producer – Renate Kupfer
- Libretto By – Michael Korie
- Music By – Stewart Wallace
- Orchestra – San Francisco Opera Orchestra
- Producer – James Mallinson
- Producer [Coordinating Producer] – Kate Gaitley
