The promotional materials from Una Voce: The Florida Men’s Chorale for its production of I Am Harvey Milk observed that “oratorios don’t exactly come along every day.” True that: Requiring not just a chorus but soloists and a full orchestra, and dealing traditionally with saintly or inspirational subjects (c.f. The Messiah), oratorios present a major challenge for chorales, composers, and, for that matter, audiences.
All of which makes Andrew Lippa’s oratorio — and Una Voce’s superlative performance thereof — that much more remarkable. Its subject is no saint — Harvey Milk would probably have been the first to say that — but he was unquestionably inspirational, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the U.S. and a vocal proponent of LGBT equality. His assassination in 1978 (along with that of gay-friendly San Francisco Mayor George Moscone) by a former colleague on the SF Board of Supervisors only strengthened the resolve of gay people and their allies to spread the message of inclusion Milk represented.
That passionate, hopeful spirit suffuses the music and lyrics of I Am Harvey Milk, which was commissioned by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus in 2011 and given its Florida premiere this weekend by Una Voce. The 35-member chorale, with three guest soloists and an 18-piece chamber orchestra under the precise direction of Interim Artistic Director Joseph Caulkins, navigated the varied and intricate score with great style and full-throttle conviction in their final performance of the oratorio on Saturday night at the USF School of Music Concert Hall.
Lippa, a Broadway composer best known locally for freeFall’s productions of his musicals The Wild Party and jon & jen, brings unerring pop instincts and protean musicality to his song cycle, moving from plaintive solos to a disco-inflected anthem to a gloriously uplifting finale, while retaining focus throughout on the humanity of his three central characters: the little boy who loves opera (Hari-Krishna Koipallil); the mother worried about her gay son (Ruthie Nelson); and the politician whose sass and determination make him both a hero and a target (Chris Romeo).
Lippa endears us to Harvey immediately by introducing him as a young boy in “An Operatic Masterpiece,” sung with sweet clarity by Koipallil. Then he leaps ahead to Milk’s death with the chilling, percussive choral piece “I Am The Bullet,” the lyrics conveying the literally senseless nature of gun violence: “I am the bullet… no opinion, no allegiance… I do as I am told.” Then we’re back in time to Milk’s historic election as a city supervisor. With a giant projection of San Francisco City Hall looming behind him, Romeo sings “You Are Here” with a jubilant, ringing tenor and a pinch-me-is-this-really-happening sense of irony (“What will the Pope do?”). It’s as if Lippa wants to dispatch with the tragedy of Milk’s death right away and get to the abiding qualities of his life, his sense of purpose and capacity for joy.
Joy powers “Friday Night at the Castro,” in which the tuxedoed men of Una Voce got to let loose and shake their groove thangs a bit; the aria “Lavender Pen,” sung with panache by Romeo, in which Harvey exults at the signing of San Francisco’s Human Rights Ordinance; and the all-embracing “San Francisco,” an ode to the city as a place that welcomes “the broken.”
But heartbreak gets equal time. In the poignant “Was I Wrong?,” the crystalline-voiced Nelson evoked the pain and confusion of Harvey’s mother, who loves him but isn’t sure what’s in store for him. “Sticks and Stones” — perhaps the only choral work whose lyrics include “Faggot!” and “Girly boy!” — was a grim reminder that words can be as hurtful as physical violence.
The finale, inspired by a famous speech in which Milk urged gays and lesbians to be more visible, is a no-holds-barred call to action. Cresting to one huge wave of voices with the entire company singing “Come out! Come out!,” it nearly blew the roof off the concert hall.
The still shiny-new hall’s acoustics are superb. Maybe a little too good; the orchestra’s full sound at times overwhelmed some of the singers’ quieter moments, no doubt tricky to calibrate when the company had only the one chance to perform there. (The first of the two performances took place Friday night at The Palladium.) That wasn’t a problem in the first half of the program, in which singers were accompanied by solo piano (a spot-on Evyn Surrency). In keeping with the oratorio, the selections paid tribute to men and women of vision, photos of whom were projected behind the singers: “We Shall Overcome,” for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; “Back to Before,” from the Broadway musical Ragtime, for Gloria Steinem, a proto-feminist solo sung beautifully by Nelson; “Go the Distance,” from the movie Hercules, for artist and AIDS activist Keith Haring, movingly performed by Romeo. The hilariously punny “Color Out of Colorado” from When Pigs Fly (“You can’t take the Mary out of Maryland”) closed the first act with polished theatricality.
Harvey Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, a prominent LGBT activist in his own right, was supposed to introduce Saturday night’s performance of the oratorio. But he was stuck in diplomatic transit, so Tom Dyer — founder of Watermark, and a member of the Harvey Milk Foundation’s advisory board — spoke instead, and shared an anecdote. He told the audience that Stuart is often stopped by people who tell him they are sorry his uncle is not alive today to see the progress that has been made for LGBT equality. Stuart’s answer is always, “But he did see it.” Milk envisioned it, and was convinced it would happen. “We’re living in the world that Harvey Milk saw.
”Una Voce’s performance was a powerful reminder of Milk’s vision. In a night that was a major achievement for the chorale in all respects, that was perhaps its greatest accomplishment of all.
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2015.