Time: The 1950s. Place: Washington, D.C. Plot: In the foreground, a gay love affair; in the background, the “lavender scare,” Senator McCarthy’s purging of homosexuals from Federal Government jobs. The opera Fellow Travelers premiered in Cincinnati in 2016—to raves! Ravishing music, seamless theatricality, emotional poignance and power. Boston’s your next chance to see it. —L.J.

Fellow Travelers will be performed at Madison Opera, in Madison, Wisconsin, February 7 to 9, 2020.