9 ONE, INC. a variety of scholarly and community unaware until the last act of her beloved's activities in Los Angeles. actual sex. Ward Houser In 1974, Dominique Fernandez wrote a novel entitled Porporino, ou les rnystkres de Naples, about Italian castrati, many neutered as boys in order to preserve A composite art fusing wordst the treble timbres of their singing voices, music, and stagecraft, opera has flourkhed and drawing on historical fact, depicting for five centuries. Although the lavish them as having hetero- and homosexual support the medium requires has, until relationships. In 1979, the French Aix recently, placed limits on overt represen- Festival presented a staged Porporino us- tation of variant se~uality,careful SCru- ing dialogue from the novel and a tiny reveals significant homoerotic aspects. of arias by Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Origins. Opera began in late Ren- Battista Pcrgolesi, and other eighteenth- aissance Italy with Jacopo Perils Dafne century composers, assembled by musi- ( 1597) and Euridice (160011and ho~~osex- cologis t Roger Blanchard. Countertenor ual themes and characters initially aP- James Bowman and high coloratura peared during the form's first half-centuV Bruce Brewer portrayed castrati Porporino or so of existence. In director Gerald and Feliciano. Freedman's 1973 Two of Wolfgang Amadeus production of Claudio Monteverdi's ~~~~rtf~major concern homosex- L'lncoronaZione di Poppea (164211 con- ual monarchs from antiquity. Alexander cerning the marriage of the bisexual first- the Great, the fourth-century B.c.con- century Roman emPerorNer0 to his mis- queror of the Persian Empire (whose orien- tress, Poppaea Sabin%the erotic nature of tation is discussed in a biography by Roger Nero's relationship with the poet Marcus Peyrefitte and in novels by Mary Renault), Annaeus Lucanus--called Lucano in the is a central figure in I1 Re Pastore ( 1775). In libretto-was made explicit. In Pier Fran- ~h,~~~l~~ coesars, the R~~~~ historian cesco Cavalli's La Cafisto ( 165 11, Jove, the Suetoniuswrotethat first-century emperor supreme ~~n~andeity) must disguise Titus, the protagonist of La Clemenza di himself asDiana, goddess of the moon and ~i~~(1791 1, uowned troops of inverts and the hunt, in order to seduce the nymph eunuchs~~and had urelations with . . . Calisto. Among the musicians of the sev- favorite boys [who] danced . . on the enteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lully stage." The finales of both operas find the (1632-168711 court music master to King heterosexual lovers paired up while the Louis of France and composer of 20 rulers remain alone: eighteenth-century operas, was homosexual- The Poet Pietro sensibilities would never have tolerated Metastasio ( 1698-1782Ir the greatest li- on-stage male mates for Alessandro and brettist of the Baroque period, was erotic- q-ito. hi^ situation ~~ll~~~~d~~ ally linked to several men of his day. development of the "harmless sissy" image In her study Sex Variant for films of the 1930s and 1940s, rendering in fiteramre (195611Jeannette Foster char- gay male characters asexual to avoid pro- acterized the heroicBradamante in Ludo- volting public outrage. a salzburg vico Ariosto's epic Orlando Furioso ( 1531) intermezzo ~~~ll~et ~~~~j~~h~~, as a "young Amazon in full armor" who posed when he was eleven, Mozart had finds, between martial exploits, that she approached the forbidden theme more attracts female admirers. In George Frid- directly, though in the ~~~i~libretto the ericHandel's Alcina (1735))Bradamante's love of the god for the boy is in part ob- loving champion is the eponymous en- scured by a female interest. chantress' sister Morgana, who remains OPERA f

Nineteenth Century. Passionate production of Georges Bizet's letters Ludwigvan Beethoven (1770-1 827) (1875)) realized posthumously by Bodo wrote to his nephew, Carl Obermayer, Igesz, Gentele had the smuggler Remen- have led to speculation that the German dado played as gay on the basis of his composer may have been homosexual. In rhapsodizing over the "distinguished" his only opera, Fidelio (1805), the fearless Englishmen he has seen in Gibraltar, and Leonore, who dons male clothing to pene- other passages of dialogue. trate prison walls in order to rescue her While Eugene Onegin (1879)and husband, Florestan, a political prisoner, The Queen of Spades (1890) by attracts a female admirer, Marzelline, jailer Tchaikovsky show heterosexual love frus- Rocco's daughter. When Leonore reveals traed or in a cynical light, they offer no gay her true identity to all in the finale, alternative. In an Opera News article Marzelline bewails her choice of love ob- (19861, American gay composer and diarist ject. In Otto Schenk's 1970 Metropolitan Ned Rorem contrasted Tchaikovsky, Opera production, choristers made much whose "homosexuality . . . was 'realized' homophobic merriment over Marzelline's though tragic," with his compatriot Mod- discomfort. est Mussorgsky (1839-1881) who, Rorem The fifteenth-century transvestite opined, "was homosexual. . . [but]proba- and French patron saint, Joan of Arc, was bly unfilfilled." Mussorgsky set his given male lovers in Giuseppe Verdi's masterwork Boris Godunov (completed Giovanna d'Arco (1845) and in Russian 1870, revised 1871-72) in the homosocial homosexual Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's halls of government and the exclusively The Maid of Orldans (188 1j, just as the male environment of the monastery. The Lesbian poet was in Charles Gounod's sole heterosexual liaison, between Marina Sapho (1851).St. Joan's lifewas laterdrama- and Dimitri, spurred by power, not love, tized in Joan (1971) by openly gay, New was only added later to fulfill the Imperial York-based composer and minister A1 Theatre's directors' demand that the opera Carmines (born 1936), whose eclectic have a prima donna. In Khovanshchina, works, drawing on classical, popular, and on which Mussorgsky worked between liturgical music, are variously termed 1872 and 1880 but left unfinished, the operas, oratorios, and musicals. In Joan, composer included gay-baiting among the martyred heroine's story is updated to Prince Andrei Khovansky's other unsa- the present and relocated to New York's vory attributes. When his abandoned fi- East Village and Joan and the Virgin Mary ancCe Marfa prevents his pursuit of the are depicted as lovers. frightened Emma, Andrei snidely wonders Daniel Auber's Gustave 111 ou Le if Marfa is herself "inappropriately at- BalMasqud (1833) and Verdi's Un Balloin tracted" to Emma. Dignified Marfa calmly Maschera (1859) have as protagonist ignores his charge. homosexual Swedish King Gustavus 111 French composer Camille Saint- (1746-1792), whose reign began in 1771, Saens (1835-1921) is best known to opera- but stress his heterosexual amorous pur- philes as the composer of Samson et Dalila suits. Magnus Hirschfeld cited possible (1877). In a Gay Sunshine interview, liaisons between the king and Adolf Fre- Edouard Roditi recalled that Saint-Saens, drik Muell, Johann Aminoff, and Gustav "a notorious homosexual," was trailed by Mauritz Armfelt, men to whom he gave plainclothes police bodyguards protecting the title of Count. In a production of Ballo him from "scandal" and harassment as he at the Royal Opera in Stockholm (1959)) searched for sex partners. Though the director Goran Gentele suggested an erotic Biblical spectacle and lush orchestration tie between the king and the page Oscar, of Samson seem to hint at agay sensibility, who is played by a . In his 1972 Met these also characterize works of the pre- 0:- OPERA sumably heterosexual Jules Massenet and Pelldas et Mdlisande (1902),should beseen likely merely show Saint-Saens to be typi- as gay and asked if the dying Marcellus, cal of creative artists of his time. who lures him from his ailingfather's side, A profound influence on late- is more than a friend. Romantic and later composers was the Wagner's heir as preeminent German Richard Wagner (1813-1883 1. His German composer of his day was Richard principal patronwas thehomosexualKing Strauss. The earliest Strauss opera in the Ludwig of Bavaria (1845-18861, who had regular repertory is (1905), a set- the court opera in Munich give the pre- ting of the 1893 play by IrishIEnglish mieres of Tristan und Isolde (1865), Die homosexual writer Oscar Wilde Meistersanger von Nurnberg [1868),Das (1854-1900).LinesofHerodias'page, which Rheingold [1869),and Die Walkiire (18701, imply his intimacy with Narraboth, Syr- thoughit is questionablewhether thelzing's ian captain of the Tetrarch's guard-"He ardor was requited. was my brother and nearer to me than a Some directors of Das Rheingold brother," and so on-were omitted from have depicted as gay the gentle god Froh, librettist HedwigLachmannls adaptation, who pines for his sister Freia when the but Herod's observation that Narraboth giants abduct her and conjures up the rain- "was fair to look upon" remained. Other bow bridge leading to Valhalla. Father M. operas based on works of Wilde include Owen Lee, in Opera News (19871, and Alexander von Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg other writers have explored homoerotic and Eine Florentinische Tragodie, Mario themes in Parsifal(1882),concerning the Castelnuovo-Tedesco's 7%eImportanceof youth who joins the homosocial society of Being Ernest, William Orchard's The Pic- the Knights of the Grail. In his 1983 film, ture of Dorian Gray, Hans Schaeuble's director Hans Jiirgen Syberberg found in Dorian Gray, Renzo Bossits L'usignuolo e Parsifal an androgynous duality and split la rosa, and Jaroslav Kriclta's The Gentle- his scenes between an actor and an actress. man in White. Wilde and the aesthetic The Earlier Twentieth Century. movement were satirized in Sir William Wagner influenced the compositions of Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan's operetta Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-19441, whose Patience (1881))but without mention of lesbianism is well attested. Smyth wrote his homosexuality. six operas, one of which is the only opera In Strauss' (1909), the by a woman ever presented by the Metro- outcast, rebellious heroine, who inspires politanopera, Der Wald(TheForest, 1902], the admiration and affection of one of the given two performances there in 1903. A solo serving wom'en, all but makes love to participant in the women's suffrage move- her timid, conformist sister Chrysothemis mentinEngland, Smythwroteitsanthem, in her attempt to convince her to join in "Shoulder to Shoulder" (1911 J, which has avengingtheirfather, Agamemnon'sdeath, been sung by the New York City Gay and some performers have made their Men's Chorus. The Concise Oxford Dic- embraces quite graphic. Created in the tionary of Opera says that Smyth's "enter- spirit of Mozart's Cherubino, the pubes- taining series of memoirs conveys consid- cent pageboy in Le Nove di Figaro, Octa- erable relish for the long struggle against vian, in Der Rosenkavalier (191l), is a suspicion of a woman who composed, and young nobleman played by a woman. did so with a robust professionalism that Gender lines blur still more when, like took men's breaths away ." Cherubino, this male character dons fe- Ned Rorem, writing in Opera male clothes for a ruse. Early productions News (19781, wondered if the reticent faced censorship problems not only be- PellCas, protagonist of Claude Debussy's cause the first scene finds Octavian in bed OPERA O with or in close proximity to the Mar- The Mid- and Late Twentieth schallin, but also because both performers Century. French homosexual composer in this erotic scene are women. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) wrote three In a 1987 German production operas. In the whimsical Les Mamelles de of Austrian composer Franz Schreker's Tirisias (1944, first performed 19471, with Die Gezeichneten (The Branded Ones, a text by Guillaume Apollinaire, husband 1918), hedonistic Duke Adorno and his and wife exchangesexes. Shegrows a beard close friend Count Tamare were played as and moustache, while he gives birth to bisexual. thousands of babies. In Dialogues des The homosexuality of Polish Carmilites (1957),after GeorgesBernanosl composerKarolSzymanowski(1882-1937) play, set during the French Revolution in is well documented. His (1926) the single-sex environment of the con- concerns a historical twelfth-century Si- vent, the relationship between the pro- cilian ruler who is torn between the Apol- tagonist Blanche de la Force and young lonian, represented by the intellectuals he Soeur Constance is depicted as a particu- summons to his court, and theDionysian, larly loving one. The monodrama La Voix personified by an Indian shepherd who Humaine (19591, a setting of a play from leads a wild bacchanal. Staging King Roger the 1930s by gay writer Jean Cocteau, for the Long Beach (California) Opera in consists of a woman's anguished telephone 1988, director highlighted conversation with the male lover who has homoerotic themes he detected there. left her. Lo Voix has an air of autobiogra- Szymanowski's earlier opera (writ- phy, understandably transmogrified with ten 1912-13, first performed 1922) was an alteration of pronouns at a time when it modeled on Salome. would have been nearly impossible to gain Austrian composer Alban Berg's acceptance for a dramatization of a break- Lulu, based on Frank Wedekind's plays up of a homosexual relationship. Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora's Box Homoerotic themes, both overt (190l),had a posthumous premiere (1937). and covert, figure prominently in the Its third act, long suppressed by Helene oeuvre of gay English composer Lord Berg, the composer's widow, was edited Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). Leading and orchestrated by Friedrich Cerha and roles in most of his works were created by firstperformedin1979.ThelesbianCount- his long-time lover, Sir Peter Pears ess Martha Geschwitz, who belongs to an (1910-19861, one of the few opera singers exclusive society of women artists, has to come out publicly during his lifetime. A seen Lulu's portrait en travesti as Pierrot, numberofwriters, includingPhilipBrett- and invites her to attend a ball dressed in author of the Cambridge opera handbook male costume. In her masochistic devo- Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes (1983) and tion, the countess contracts cholera in subject of an extensive Christopher Street order to substitute for her adored "angel" magazine interview by Lawrence Mass Lulu in a prison hospital. Called mad, (1987bhaveprobed the parallel between mannish, and unnatural by her love, the the composer's emphatic portrayals of countess never loses her dignity despite oppressed and ostracized individuals and the sordid circumstances into which her his own experience as a gay man living and love leads her. She declares her determina- writing in a hostile, repressive society. tion to attend law school and fight for In Britten's Peter Grimes (1945), women's rights but soon dies, with Lulu, based on George Crabbe's poem "The at the hands of Jack the Ripper. It is never Borough" (1810)) the protagonist, sensi- made clear whether or not the countess' tive, poetic and deeply troubled beneath relationship with Lulu develops into a his gruff fisherman's exterior, is shown in physical one. a brief tender moment with his boy ap- 4 OPERA prentice.Grimes'attachmentsto Johnand Lesbia as well as their other same-sex to his late predecessor William Spode are amorous adventures. definitely obsessive, if questionably erotic. In a Gay Sunshine interview, Grimes' neighbors in the small fishing openly gay American composer Lou Harri- village suspect him of abusing his appren- son (born 19 17)said of his colleague Virgil tices andgalvanizeintoalynchmobwhich Thomson (born 1896) that, though he drives Grimes to suicide. Billy Budd (195I ), "hasn't openly declared himself, . . . his with libretto by Eric Crozier and gay nov- gayness is an open secret." Thomson col- elist E. M. Forster, after Herman Melville's laborated with lesbian writer Gertrude Billy Budd, Foretopman (1924),traces the Stein on two operas, Four Saints in Three disastrous effects of the repressed attrac- Acts (1928, first performed 1934))dealing tion of two British naval officers--one with the lives of Spanish saints, and The irredeemably evil, whose feeling turns to Mother of Us All (1947), which had its jealous hatred, the other good, but du- premiere after Stein's death and has as its tybound-for the handsome sailor Billy, subject Susan B. Anthony's long crusade who is falsely accused of inciting mutiny. for American women's suffrage. Openly In The Turn of the Screw (19541, gay English conductor Raymond Leppard based on Henry James' 1898 novella, the (born 1927))who led an American bicen- ghostly servant Peter Quint, who "made tennial production of The Mother in Santa free" with young Miles while living, con- Fe, noted in a public television documen- tinues to exert influence over the boy from tary (1977) that the relationship of An- beyond the grave, as the late governess, thony and her companion Anne Howard Miss Jessel, does over her former charge, Shaw, depicted in the opera as devoted and Miles' sister Flora. mutually supportive, parallels that of Stein Britten's church parable Curlew and AliceB. Toklas (1877-19671, which he River (19641, whichincorporates elements called one of the great love affairs of the of the Japanese Noh style, includes century. Thomson's third opera was Lord the first serious female role in Western Byron (1961-68, first performed 1972). music drama composed for male voice in Other composers who have used Stein's modem times, that of the madwoman. texts as librettos include Ned Rorem, for (StephenSondheim wrote additional such the short opera Three Sisters Who Are Not parts in his 1976 opus about Japan, Pacific Sisters (1968))and A1 Carmines, who set Overtures.] her words in What Happened (19631, In Death in Venice (19731, which Circles (1967),The Making of Americans Britten based on Thomas Mann's 1913 (1972))Listen to Me (1975), and A Manoir novella, concerns the struggle of the intel- (1977). As "Gertrude S." and "Virgil T." lectual novelist Gustav von Aschenbach appear as characters in The Mother of Us with his erotic awakening, inspired by the All, so are Stein and Toklas, and Oscar ethereal youth Tadzio. The climax of the Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas as well, in first act, preceded by a driving crescendo, the cast list of Carmines' coming-out work is Aschenbach's realization and declara- The Faggot (1973). tion, "1 love you." As Britten, working in an era Slightly outside the realm of before gay liberation, made pacifism his opera, but sometimes staged by opera primary cause, so did gay American com- companies, Carl Orff's scenic cantata poserMarcBlitzstein(1905-1964)channel Catulli Carmina (1943)is based on sexu- his social consciousness into music the- ally explicit verses by bisexual Roman atre works dealing with laborers strug- poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (87-54 B.c.) gling against scoundrelly bosses, and with and concerns his love for the bisexual related issues, in The Cradle Will Rock OPERA 4

(1937))Regina (1949), and a 1952 adapta- after August Strindberg, and Bertha (19731, tion of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's about a Queen of Norway. Threepenny Opera (1928). At the time of In Argentine composer Alberto his death at the hands of sailors in Martin- Ginastera's Bomarzo (1967)) Pier Fran- ique, Blitzstein was at work on an opus, cesco Orsini, the hunchbacked Duke of commissioned for the Metropolitan Op- Bomarzo, is impotent with his wife, Giulia era, about anarchists Bart Vanzetti and Famese, and with the courtesan Penta- Nicola Sacco. Blitzstein's biographer Eric silea, but "dearly loves" his powerful male A. Gordon has pointed out a homoerotic slave Abul. Orsini dreams that wife, cour- touch in the original Broadway staging of tesan, and slave compete for possession of the opera Regina. Two black male ser- him. At Orsini's command, the faithful vants observe (through a window) a party Abul kills Maerbale, the Duke's brother, given by their rapacious white employer who dressed Orsini in female clothing as a and imitate actions of the guests. Among child and later became Giulia's lover. the targets of the men's mockery is an The Seventies and Eighties. The extravagant romantic scene, which they year 1970 brought the premieres of Ben reenact. Johnston's Carmilla, based on Sheridan La In Samuel Barber's Antony and Fanu's novel, which influenced Bram Cleopatra (1966))Antony and his young Stoker's Dracula, and concerning Laura's shield-bearer, Eros, have a tender farewell seduction by the vampire Carmilla, and scene. On the verge of defeat by Octavius Sir MichaelTippettls The Knot Garden, in Caesar, Antony bids Eros to run him which interracial male lovers Dov, a through with his sword. After words of musician, and Mel, a writer, undergo trials, affection and praise, the youth kills him- including humiliation, and separation by self to avoid having to slay his master. The heterosexual partners, before their re- libretto, after William Shakespeare's play, union. Operas based on plays by gay writ- is by Franco Zeffirelli (born 1923)) ers Federico Garcia Lorca (1899-1936)- filmmaker, and director and designer of Yerma by Heitor Villa-Lobos, a posthu- many operas, who came out publicly in an mous premiere-and Tennessee Williams' Advocate interview. Zcffirelli was a (1911-1983) Summer and Smoke by Lee protkgk of gay film director Luchino Vis- Hoiby, with libretto by Lanford Wilson- conti (1906-1976), who also staged and were introduced in 1971. (AWilliams short designed opera. Other gay opera directors story, "LordByron'sLoveLetter,"received or designers have been the Metropolitan operatic treatment by composer Rafaello Opera's Bruce Donnell, actor Charles de Banfield in 1955.)Conrad Susa's Trans- Ludlam, choreographer Mark Morris, formations (1973) uses as a text Anne photographer CecilBeaton, and artist David Sexton's poetic versions of fairy tales and Hockney. Gay librettists include lovers includes a lesbian interpretation of the Wystan Hugh Auden and Chester Kall- story of Rapunzel. The historical homo- man, for Igor Stravinsky's TheRake's Prog- sexual figure Henry, Lord Darnley ress and Hans Werner Henze's Elegy for (1545-1567), husband of the titular mon- Young Lovers and The Bassarids; Lang- arch, is a character in Thea Musgrave's ston Hughes for Weill's Street Scene; and Mary, Queen of Scots (1977).His enemies William M. Hoffman, author of As Is, a in the opera call him vain, ambitious, play about AIDS, for John Corigliano's A weak, and foppish. Slightly tangential, but Figaro for Antonia, commissioned by the pertinent to the topic of opera, is the Met for production in 1991. oratorio The Return of the Great Mother Operas of Ned Rorem, who came (19771, by composer Roberta Kosse (born out in his Paris Diary (1966)and New York 1947)and librettist Jenny Malmquist. The Diary (1967), include Miss Iulie (1965)) work celebrates matriarchy and women's 0:. OPERA relationshipswith w0men.A Lesbian Play Native called "Straussian." A major char- for Lucy (1978), with music by Tamara acter in Jay Reise's Rasputin (1988) is Bliss and libretto by Eleanor Hakim, ex- homosexualRussianprinceFeliksFelikso- amines the relationships amongDemeter, vich Yusupov, one of the murderers of the Hecate, Persephone, and Athena. mad monk Rasputin in 1916. While during the 1970s, gay opera Duringthe 1980s, operalost many fans were spoken of with hostility and talented individuals to AIDS, including contempt in print by soprano RCgine New York City Opera and stage Crespin (High Fidelity, 1977) and actor directors David Hicks and Ronald Bentley, and aficionadoTony Randall (OperaNews Met tenor James Atherton, and Opera News and After Dark, 1972)) the decade also editor Robert M. Jacobson. Singers and found writers in the gay press, including conductors have participated in AIDS the Bay Area Reporteis George Heymont benefit concerts, such as "A GalaNight for and Gay Community News' Nicholas Singing" in East Hampton, New York Deutsch, a director, and Michael Bronslu, [1985),organized by Jacobson and openly beginning to write about opera from a gay manager Matthew A. Epstein and fea- gay angle. turing Aprile Millo, Jerry Hadley and oth- In A Quiet Place (1983)by Leon- ers, and "Music for Life", at Carnegie Hall ard Bernstein (born 19181, bisexual (1987),which benefited Gay MenlsHealth Frangois is Dede's husband as well as her Crisis andstarred LeontynePrice, Marilyn brother, Junior's former lover. While-to Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, SamuelRamey, the consternation of gay activitists-rela- Leonard Bernstein, and James Levine. tively few people who work in opera have During the 1980s, gay choruses openly declared their homosexuality were formed and began interacting with (apparently fearing loss of prestige or the operaworld. Opera singers Faith Esham employment in a profession heavily de- and Jane Shaulis have appeared with the pendent on voluntary public subsidy), in New York City Gay Men's Chorus, while the scurrilous, homophobic Bernstein: A the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus par- Biography (1987)) Joan Peyser discussed ticipated in San Francisco Opera perform- the homosexual orientations of numerous ances of Wagner's DerFliegendeHollander musicians who had not comeout publicly, and Parsifal. In 1988, the Portland, Ore- including the subject of her book, compos- gon, Gay Men's Chorus presented Lou ers Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Harrison's opera Young Caesar. While Samuel Barber, and Gian Carlo Menotti; Handel's GiuLio Cesare focuses on Julius and conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos Caesar's (102-44 B.c.) involvement with (Menotti later came out in an Advocate Cleopatra, Harrison's work explores the interview). Roman general and statesman's affairwith Homophobia mars Dominick the Oriental king of Bithynia, Nicomedes Argento's Casanova'sHomecoming(l985), IV. During this decade, Ira Siff, who sang also called Casanova, in which the Mar- tenor in A1 Carmines' worlzs, formed La quis de Lisle, described as asexual but Gran Scena Opera (1981)' which presents depicted as a mincing stereotypical homo- opera parodies, blurs gender with trans- sexual, is made the butt of the opera's vestite diva portrayals (notably Siff's climactic joke for his failure to indulge in Madame Vera Galupe-Borzslth], and in- heterosexual intercourse. Sam Michael cludes gay double-entendres in perform- Belich's Laius and Chrysippus (1986),with ances. Similar work has been done by a text by Opera Monthly contributor Sam David Clenny, who sang male soprano H. Shirakawa, depicts the love affair of with the Handel Society in the 1970s and Laius, father of Oedipus, and Chrysippus, took the travesti title part in his own La son of Pelops, in music the New York Contessa dei Vampiri (19871, and by Eng- OPPRESSION, CAY O lishman Michael Aspinall, who is billed as necessary on utilitarian grounds. The "the Surprising Soprano." analogies with the disadvantaged condi- tion of the aforenamed social categories BIBLIOCX"J'HY.David Hamilton, ed., shaped the notion of ugay oppression^^ as a The Encyclopedia, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987; pervasive set of wrongs inflicted by an Harold Rosenthal and JohnWarrack, establishment that imposed a heterosex- eds., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of ual norm on the whole of society. Obliga- Opera, Oxford: Oxford University Press, tory heterosexuality, the need to conceal 1979. one's sexual identity, the social ostracism Bruce~Michael and economic boycott to which known homosexuals were subjected, police ha- OPPRESSION,GAY rassment and sporadicviolenceat the hands The concept of gay oppression of hooligans, the entire structure of privi- was disseminated by the Gay Liberation lege which the Judeo-Christian tradition Front founded in New York City in the conferred on the patriarchal family-all summer of 1969 and by similar groups these burdens that the homosexual had to elsewhere that took GLF as their model endure in an intolerant society were as- and ideological paradigm. cribed to a system of oppression that the Early Statements and Back- Gay Liberation Front aspired to overthrow, ground. In a typical statement, the British with the rest the for Gay Liberation Front declared (December which the capitalist was held re- 1970)that its first priority was "to defend sponsible- the immediate interests of gay people An Italian writer appealing to the against discrimination and social oppres- classical Marxist tradition, Mario Mieli, sion.u It added that roots of the op- went even further, asserting that "the pression that gay people suffer run deep in monosexual Norm - . is based On the our society, in particular to the structure mutilationof Eros, and in particular on the ofthefamily, patterns of socialization, and condemnation of homosexuality. It is clear the Judeo-Christian culture. Legal reform from this that when we understand and education against prejudice, though W~Ythe homoerotic impulse is repressed possible and necessary, cannot be a perma- in the majority, by the whole mechanism nent solution. While existing social strut- society, will we be able to grasp how the tures remain, social prejudice and overt exclusive or at least highly predominant repression can always re-emerge. . . . GLF assertion of heterosexual desire in the therefore sees itself as part of the wider majority comes about-" He added that the movement aiming to abolish all forms of proceSS of repression began in childhood1 social oppression.^^ A~~~~ the social when homosexual tendencies are branded groups sufferingfrom one of the multifari- as ''feminine" and shameful, and thewhole ous formsof oppression, its manifesto listed subject is treated as unspeakable. women, black people and other national Realities of Oppression. Such minorities, the working class, young concepts were undoubtedly shaped in large people, and peoples oppressed by imperi- measure by the personal experiences which alism. many gay activists had to undergo at vari- hi^ billofgrievancesgrew out of ous times in their lives, when they con- the experience and the thinking of the fronted head-on the hostility of society N~~ ~~f~ in the late 196Os, which saw and its relentless pressure to conform to repressive practices at work in many areas the norm heterosexuality. Still later1 of Western society where the inferiorstatus they were able to see how across centuries of particular segments of the population Euro~eanhistor~homosexualshadbeen had been taken for granted or justified as the object of persecution as ferocious as 92 7 ...... y. .. .. *......