Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir and Left Bauer Productions bring the operatic biopic of the gay rights activist to the stage.

The entrepreneurial Melbourne-based Left Bauer Productions, who recently impressed Sydney audiences with their touring production of Terrence McNally’s Master Class starring Maria Mercedes as legendary diva Maria Callas, have secured another coup in the form of the New South Wales premiere of an important contemporary American opera. In collaboration with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir, the Sydney premiere of Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie’s opera, Harvey Milk, follows on apace from the Australian premiere in Melbourne at this year’s Midsumma Festival. The Australian performances mark the 20th anniversary of the opera’s first staging in Houston, Texas.

The story of the opera will be familiar to many from Gus Van Sant’s powerful 2008 biopic starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in America. Milk was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in January 1978, and used this position to represent ethnic minorities and the elderly. Ten months later, having secured the city’s first gay rights ordinance, Milk was shot and killed by fellow...