Gay Composers Featured in NY and SF

Blier & Blumberg's "Manning the Canon"

The always brilliant and informative Steven Blier  has put together a program of song entitled "Manning the Canon: Songs of Gay Life" with his New York Festival of Song. The genesis of the concert is fascinating, as Blier first conceived of the idea twenty-two years ago and it didn't come to life until he mentioned it to barihunk Jesse Blumberg.

Blumberg, who is a favorite of this site, also runs the Five Boroughs Music Festival, as well as performing as a singer. Blumberg and Blier decided to put together the program last year, but a family emergency forced the singer to cancel. Another favorite of this site, fellow barihunk Matthew Worth, stepped in and took over the program.

Jesse Blumberg & Matt Worth

Last night Blumberg, Blier and Worth reprised the program along with tenor Scott Murphree and bass Matt Boehler. The program inlcuded Marc Blitzstein’s “Purest Kind of a Guy," Christopher Berg’s "Is It Dirty?," Lutvak and Campbell's "Exit Right," Schubert's quartet for four male voices “Auflösung," Tchaikovsky’s “At the Ball," Poulenc’s “Montparnasse," Griffes’s “Evening Song,” John Wallowich’s  “Bruce.” Bolcom’s “Piano Walk” and “I’ll Be By,” Camille Saint Saëns’s “Si vous n’avez rien à me dire,”  Benjamin Britten’s “Night covers up the rigid land,” Manuel de Falla’s “Polo," Cy Coleman's "Tennis Duet,"  Chris DeBlasio’s “Walt Whitman in 1989,”Bernstein's “To What You Said,” and Cole Porter's "You're the Top."

There is one more performance of "Manning the Canon" on December 2 and tickets are available HERE. 

Here is an article from Capital New York about the concert, which also raises the (somewhat ridiculous) question of whether a straight singer like Blumberg can sing "gay music." The answer appears to be what we all should know already: Music is a universal language.

Blumberg is not new to gay themed music, as he premiered Ricky Ian Gordon's "Green Sneakers," which we featured on this site.

Barihunk Randal Turner Sporting Our Favorite Tee Shirt

Fans of Gordon's in the San Francisco Bay Area can hear the amazingly talented barihunk Randal Turner perform his "Four Poems by Dorothy Parker." Turner's program, which features America's greatest living composers, also features music by four gay composers, Glen Roven, Clint Borzoni, Jake Heggie and Gordon.

Borzoni, who studied with David Del Tredici and Lee Hoiby, has written a piece for Randal Turner that is based on Walt Whitman and is dedicated to the gay teens who have recently committed suicide. The program also features another piece written for Turner, Julia Schwartz's "Don Juan at 40" based on a from Histories of Desire by Ron Butlin.

Tickets for the Randal Turner concert are available HERE.

Gay Boheme With Barihunk Romance

Bohemian Lovers: Bryce Smith & Robert Maril

Opera Manhattan is performing Puccini's "La Boheme" with a gay subplot. Purists need not get too concerned, as they haven't transformed Mimi into Bruce. In this production Colline and Schaunard have eyes for each other, which certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Considering that two barihunks, Robert Maril and Bryce Smith, are the two singers in the romance, it makes sense that they'd want to snuggle up together in a cold Bohemian garret. Who could resist either of these guys?

Certainly after RENT, it only makes sense that "La Boheme" now gets an updated treatment. Smith has appeared on this site before and we welcome Robert Maril, whose name sounds suspiciously similar to a famed baritone of the 1950s and 1960s.

There are still two performances left on November 19 and 20 and tickets can be purchased at the Opera Manhattan website. Smith is also one of the co-founders of the company along with Rebecca Greenstein. We always encourage readers to support singers who promote opera in ways other than singing.

For New Yorkers who want a traditional La Boheme, the Metropolitan Opera next run of the classic begins on December 1st with barihunk Gunther Groissböck as Colline.

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"Before Night Falls" in 4 Minutes

The opening of the world premiere of "Before Night Falls" is rapidly approaching. The buzz in the theater and opera world is that this is one of the "10 Must See" events of 2010. We've been promoting the opera because the lead is searingly sexy Wes Mason. Performances are on May 29 and May 6 at the Ft. Worth Opera.

Here is a synopsis of the story and a video which sums up the opera in four minutes.

As Reinaldo Arenas lies dying of AIDS in New York City, he remembers his home in Cuba as Fidel Castro takes power. A counter-revolutionary and homosexual, he is prosecuted by the state for having his manuscripts published outside Cuba. After a period of imprisonment and torture, Reinaldo's friend Lazaro receives permission to leave the country, but Reinaldo must find a way to escape to America. After learning he has a fatal disease, Reinaldo rushes to finish his memoirs and Lazaro stays by his side until the end.

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Associated Press Feature on Paulo Szot

[Photo: Kathy Willens / AP]


On May 14, 1948, Ezio Pinza sang his last "Don Giovanni" with the Metropolitan Opera on tour in Cleveland and retired from the company. The next year, the Italian basso crossed over to Broadway, creating the role of Emile de Becque in the musical "South Pacific" and becoming forever identified with the song "Some Enchanted Evening."

Nearly 62 years later, Paulo Szot is retracing Pinza's steps — backward. After two years of playing de Becque to great acclaim (and, like Pinza, a Tony award) in a revival of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, Szot is making his Met debut on March 5.

Talk about a role reversal.

[Read the complete article HERE]