My husband is a hyphenate (most people in Portland are), as an artist-designer-set designer, but he is a bit of an underachiever, compared with poet-artist-playwright-actor-designer-photographer-filmmaker-boxing manager- Jean Cocteau. Cocteau published his 1st volume of poems when he was 19. He was a well regarded artist & popular man-about-town in Paris, with the success of several ballets & plays that he wrote in his late 20s. In the early 1920s, Cocteau's lover, writer Raymond Radiguet, died of typhoid fever; the despondent Cocteau escaped the pain of his loss with the help of opium. In 1930, Cocteau tried film making as the medium best suited for his artistic expression. His stylized, homoerotic films are taken from Cocteau's drawings: bold, simple strokes, accentuated eyes, minimalist outlines & profiles, & erotic, surrealistic portraits that dominate the sets of his films. In his later films, Cocteau included bits of his poetry written in his distinctive handwriting, samples of his drawings & paintings, narration, & cast himself in certain roles.
Cocteau’s work is marked by whimsical special effects & exotic landscapes & themes of narcissism, the Orpheus myth, mirrors, passages to secret worlds, fairy tales, flowers, & beautiful people in iconographic settings. In 1937, Cocteau met Jean Marais, the most famous of his lovers, & helped make his talented, handsome, & athletic protégé into one of France's most beloved movie stars. Cocteau made with Marais, such classics films as La belle et la bête & Orphée.
Cocteau by Modigliani
Cocteau encouraged artists to speak out against unjust political domination, & yet he was burdened by the open secrets of his opium use & homosexuality, which made him particularly vulnerable to attack by the right-wing government. During the Nazi Occupation, Cocteau's plays were banned & Cocteau was a victim of physical violence & homophobic insults. But still, Cocteau wrote, made films, traveled, & attracted famous friends, patrons, & protégés throughout the rest of his life. Cocteau was elected to the prestigious Académie Français. The artist died of a heart attack in 1963, just an hour after learning of singer Édith Piaf's death. He wrote more than 30 volumes of poetry, 7 novels, 24 plays, 11 ballets, 6 operas, 6 full length films, & 100s of drawings & photographs. He contributed to the worlds of publishing, graphic design, clothing design, & interior design. Jean Cocteau continues to this day as one of France's most famous, & most adored, cultural icons. A fascinating gay man of the 20th century. How about Adrien Brody in the title role of the film of his life story?
William Ralph Blass was a very handsome man, who happened to be gay. He produced clothes for many renowned women including Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Pat Buckley, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, & Barbara Walters. Bill Blass's life epitomised the Gatsby-esque American dream. Along with Oscar de la Renta, Blass was the American designer who most successfully brought together the roles of couturier & social butterfly.
At one point in my life I thought that escorting society dames to parties, lunches & events might just be the ticket for me. I had my eye on Diana Vreeland in the mid-1970s. Blass was one of the most successful 'walkers' ever. He was an indefatigable partygoer, showing up with some of the richest women in Manhattan at every party, gallery opening & hip restaurant. He not only loved the world of glamour, big money, high profile & style, but understood how to dress it, which is why his company was so successful for more than 30 years.
He was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He was the first to receive the CFDA Perignon Award for Humanitarian leadership beyond fashion. He donated the $25,000 prize to the AIDS care centre of New York Hospital. He was also a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when well known people were silent about AIDS. Bill Blass died of cancer aged 79.
For 40 years, Peter Pears was the lover/partner of composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas & song for Pears.Their partnership is important for the vast body of music & recordings it produced, & because many homosexual subjects figured in their work. Because Opera is just not gay enough. Pears became a leading lyric tenor of the Sadler's Wells Opera, where he developed an extensive repertoire, but Pears's greatest triumph in this company, was his creation of the title role of the tortured & homosexual outcast in Britten's Peter Grimes (1945). For the next 30+ years, Pears created many operatic roles that Britten wrote for him, including the title role in Albert Herring (1947), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1951), Essex in Gloriana (1953), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw (1954), Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), the Madwoman in Curlew River (1964), Nebuchadnezzar in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), the Tempter in The Prodigal Son (1968), Sir Philip Wingrave in Owen Wingrave (1971), & Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973). In 1974, Pears made, at last, his debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company in NYC, in the first American performance of Death in Venice. I wonder if my friend Will, the esteemed theatre & opera designer was in the house? Even after Britten's death in 1976, Pears continued his singing career until nearly the age of 70. He spent the remainder of his life teaching & administering the Britten-Pears School. Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, & died on April 3, 1986. He is buried next to Britten.
When I really meditate on the subject, I will have to admit to myself, that I have been very lucky in very many ways: a happy childhood, relative good health, a college education with no student loans, a roof over my head (& own the roof), dogs, gardens, books, music, & for 32 years, more than half my life, someone to share it with. The serendipity carried on to some character changing concerts & performances by great artists.
I was very lucky when living in NYC in the mid-1970s to have seen some jaw-droppingly good theater. When I sat down with my comp tickets to see an opera/theatre piece at the Metropolitan Opera with the title – Einstein At TheBeach, I had my little Rodger’s & Hammerstein loving, 22 year old brain fried by the wonder of it all. The piece was written by Philip Glass & directed & designed by Robert Wilson. My good blogger buddy Will, a world class opera & theatre designer should weigh in now.
Wilson’s work does not appear to have a gay sensibility, even if he has been an out gay man for more than 4 decades. He has had lovers over his long career. Wilson: “There hasn’t been a great romance in my life. I guess in the early part of my life I was very much looking for a relationship & trying to make it work. But like the Chinese say, ‘Don’t run after your horse; it will come back of its own accord.’ Maybe it’s a bit like that.”
Wilson’s masterpiece Einstein on the Beach made him one of the most sought-after theatrical craftsmen. The production I saw had him filling the space at the Met with light, color, and startlingly surreal images. He is known for his productions having a glacial pace, giving the audience the sense of being in a dream.
Wilson came out to his father as a young man in small town Texas. He left home to study architecture in New York City. The move was so overwhelming that Wilson retreated to Waco, attempted suicide, & was briefly institutionalized. A smart psychiatrist pointed out than being gay wasn’t troubling Wilson, but his father’s feelings about it were. Wilson moved back to NYC in 1963. In 1968, Wilson was witness to a black boy being beaten by police. He adopted the young man & has based several oh his pieces on his son’s dreams & drawings.
Wilson remains a major figure in the world of experimental theater. His works integrate a wide variety of media: movement, dance, painting, lighting, furniture design, sculpture, music, & text. He is best known for his collaborations with Philip Glass, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson & Rufus Wainwright.
His non-theatre art work has been shown in museums & galleries around the world. his talent as an exhibition designer have included the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery in Berlin, the Vitra Design Museum, & the Barbican Centre.
Wilson: “I say I like to be alone, yet I am always surrounded by people. My theater is slow & calm, yet my life is fast & hectic, going in all directions. Yes, I’ve been in love, but I guess I’m too involved with myself & my work. I think I’m in love with my work, & I’m in love with the people I work with.”
I should be tossing this out for my friend Will in New Hampshirewho is a designer, librettist & opera historian.
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-born American composer & librettist who wrote the classic Christmas opera- Amahl & The NightVisitors among 24 other operas intended to appeal to popular taste. He won 2 Pulitzer Prizes: The Consul (1950) & The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955).
He was born 100 years ago today in Italy. Menotti began writing songs when he was 7 years old. When he was 11 years old, he wrote both the libretto & music for his first opera & started his formal musical training at Milan's Verdi Conservatory in 1923.
After the death of his father, Menotti & his mother immigrated to the USA, & he enrolled at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music. His classmates included Leonard Bernstein & Samuel Barber who became Menotti's partner in life & in work.
In 1958, he founded the Festival of 2 Worlds in Spoleto, Italy; he founded its companion festival in Charleston, South Carolina in 1977. For 3 weeks each summer, Spoleto is visited by nearly a half-million people. These festivals were intended to bring opera to a popular audience & helped launch the careers of young artists including choreographers Twyla Tharp & Paul Taylor. He left Spoleto USA in 1993 to take the helm of the Rome Opera.
In 1984 Menotti was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor for achievement in the arts. In addition to composing his own work, on themes of his choosing, he also wrote the libretto, cast & directed his own productions.
Menotti died on February 1, 2007 at the age of 95 in a hospital in Monaco, where he had a home. He announced that it would be 'naughty' to die in Monte Carlo.
In Manhattan, mid-1970s, I was studying acting at HB Studios & I was working for ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers). My cubicle at ASCAP had a view of the Chagall tapestries in the Metropolitan Opera House lobby. Because my shift was in the evening, I was often treated to a special of view of the art & the fountains at Lincoln Center. When the weather was acceptable, I would have my lunch on the steps of the Opera House.
NYC being one of the most expensive places to live, I jumped at the chance to have an extra income when one of the staff members of the Met told me of an opening doing part time in the box office of the famed opera house.
The Met had a series of concerts to introduce classical music & opera to school age children. These magical afternoons were hosted by Danny Kaye. At a certain point in the concert, Kaye would explain how many people it took to put on an opera production & the curtain would rise to reveal about 200 people: technicians, stagehands, designers, orchestra members, chorus, soloists, office personnel, & front of the house staff. There I would stand for 60 seconds as the audience gasped & applauded, sounds I have always loved.
I stood near to a chubby, frizzy haired gentleman with large aviator glasses. This would be James Levine, at the time, the musical director of The Metropolitan Opera Company. Today he is the Artistic Director of the company, & in rather ill health.
Levine's tenure with the company is considered it's golden era. He developed the orchestra & chorus to an unparalleled level of achievement, excellence & recognition. Levine spends more than 7 months of the year with the Company, unique in the music world. This season at the Metropolitan Opera, he leads a new production of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, the first at the Met in 25 years, Verdi's Otello, Schoenberg's Moses & Aron, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande & Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen & the world premiere performances of John Harbison's The Great Gatsby, commissioned in honor of the 25th anniversary of his Met debut.
Why am I blathering on & on about a figure in the world of opera, when I care so very little about this art form? Well, Levine is gay & a major musical figure & today is his 67th birthday, but mostly I am framing this post around the birthday of one of my true favorite figures of the world of Opera & Theatre: William Fregosi.
I met William "Cha Cha" Fregosi in the world of blogging when I became a fan of his- Designerblog. He is one of only a handful of fellow bloggers that I have had the pleasure of meeting in person. I spent a lovely summer evening in the Boys' Fort with him, his husband, my husband & the critters. We had some wine & told some stories.
Fregosi is an amazingly talented & celebrated set & lighting designer. He is retired as Technical Coordinator/Scenic Designer for Theater Arts at MIT after 35 years. He has also been a Visiting Instructor at University of Chicago. Fregosi grew up in NYC, & attended many concerts & theatre experiences while growing up.
He holds a BFA from Boston University & an MFA from Brandeis.Fregosi has designed for Theater Company of Boston, Hasty Pudding Shows, National Jewish Theater, & Boston Center for the Arts. He designed for the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young People's Concerts, the first 2 seasons for Boston Lyric Opera, & 5 seasons for Associate Artists Opera. Fregosi has lectured nationwide for the Wagner Societies of New York, Boston, Honolulu & San Francisco). He is a regular reviewer for The Opera Quarterly. For Intermezzo Company in Boston, Fregosi was the set & lighting designer for Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea in 2009 & this season'sThe Andree Expedition. This spring he designed & co-wrote the libretto, along with his handsome husband Fritz "boom-boom" Bell, A Place of Beauty, an opera about Isabella Stewart Gardner.
What's up next for Fregosi? This autumn he is debuting his new work- Steve's Hot Pants, an operetta about climate change & masturbation techniques, for which he is doing the sets, lights, costumes, score, lyrics & book for The NoPo Community Players. This new work will join the repretory of my all canine production of Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba & my all naked Fiddler On TheRoof *(that's some hairy Jews!).
The Cossack Chorus from Fiddler On The Roof
* Footnote: I had "appeared in the Danny Kaye Concerts for Children at The Metropolitan House at Lincoln Center" on my acting resume for 20 years.
William Ralph Blass was a very handsome man, who happened to be gay. He produced clothes for many renowned women including Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Pat Buckley, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, & Barbara Walters. Bill Blass's life epitomised the Gatsby-esque American dream. Along with Oscar de la Renta, Blass was the American designer who most successfully brought together the roles of couturier & social butterfly.
At one point in my life I thought that escorting society dames to parties, lunches & events might just be the ticket for me. I had my eye on Diana Vreeland in the mid-1970s. Blass was one of the most successful 'walkers' ever. He was an indefatigable partygoer, showing up with some of the richest women in Manhattan at every party, gallery opening & hip restaurant. He not only loved the world of glamour, big money, high profile & style, but understood how to dress it, which is why his company was so successful for more than 30 years.
He was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He was the first to receive the CFDA Perignon Award for Humanitarian leadership beyond fashion. He donated the $25,000 prize to the AIDS care centre of New York Hospital. He was also a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when well known people were silent about AIDS. Bill Blass died of cancer aged 79.
For 40 years, Peter Pears was the lover/partner of composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas & song for Pears.Their partnership is important for the vast body of music & recordings it produced, & because many homosexual subjects figured in their work. Because Opera is just not gay enough. Pears became a leading lyric tenor of the Sadler's Wells Opera, where he developed an extensive repertoire, but Pears's greatest triumph in this company, was his creation of the title role of the tortured & homosexual outcast in Britten's Peter Grimes (1945). For the next 30+ years, Pears created many operatic roles that Britten wrote for him, including the title role in Albert Herring (1947), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1951), Essex in Gloriana (1953), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw (1954), Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), the Madwoman in Curlew River (1964), Nebuchadnezzar in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), the Tempter in The Prodigal Son (1968), Sir Philip Wingrave in Owen Wingrave (1971), & Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973). In 1974, Pears made, at last, his debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York, in the 1st American performance of Death in Venice. I wonder if my friend Will, the esteemed theatre & opera designer was in the house? Even after Britten's death in 1976, Pears continued his singing career until nearly the age of 70. He spent the remainder of his life teaching & administering the Britten-Pears School. Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, & died on April 3, 1986. He is buried next to Britten.
I do not have a driving passion for “serious” music, symphonic work, coral pieces or what is blanketed as “classical music. I am interested in Benjamin Britten, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, because his story is also one of the great loves stories of the last 100 years & because he was working during a golden age of gay, mostly American & British compser who all knew & fed off of each others artistic energy: Aaaron Copeland, Virgil Thomas, Paul Bowles, Samual Barber, & Leonard Bernstein. Britten composed a series of masterpieces ranging from works for solo piano, oboe & cello, to pieces for chamber ensemble, to concertos & compositions for orchestras both tiny & monumental, even a full ballet. His vocal works encompass folksong arrangements to several song cycles setting poetry by Michelangelo, William Blake, W.H. Auden among others, to the great choral masterpiece, War Requiem. The form for which he is best known is opera: Peter Grimes is arguably one of the most powerful musical dramas of the last century, & he wrote at least 5 other landmark operas that are a part of the major Opera companies' repertory.
The extraordinary tenor- Peter Pears, was Britten's musical partner, life partner & muse. Britten wrote many of his greatest vocal works, from his song cycles to his finest operas, specifically for Pears & his unique & expressive voice. Pears seems a man who has found the acceptance that eluded Britten; in a way, the always present yearning that is a major defining element of Britten's music (he does yearning better than any composer since the also gay Tchaikovsky) is resolved in Pears's comfort with his life & Britten's death. Pears & Britten were understandably reticent to talk being gay, they had lived in a Britain where sodomy carried a career & life destroying prison sentence. It was an era where they were forced to hide their love.
Benjamin Britten visited North America in the spring 1939, & found more than he hoped for. He came from Britain to perform & present some of his compositions in Canada & the USA. It was planned as a relatively short trip, but ended up lasting several years. War broke out in Europe while he was away, & he not to come back to England. Britten was 26 years old, & he would have had to enlist in the military in some form (he returned to England in 1942 & claimed conscientious objector status).
During this visit, Britten & his traveling companion, the tenor Peter Pears, started the love affair that lasted 40+ years, until Britten died in 1976. There is a hotel room in Grand Rapids, MI, that is a place of pilgrimage for gay musicians, where they supposedly consummated their union. Pears wrote later: "I shall never forget a certain night in Grand Rapid. Ich liebe dich, io t’amo, jeg elske dyg, je t’aime, in fact, my little white-thighed beauty, I’m terribly in love with you." How mushy, but Britten was a Brit, & of course his legs were probably very white.
Pears with Britten at the piano
The Britten/ Pears had gay “marriage” that gave life to some of the most magnificent music of the century. Homosexuality was altogether prohibited in England at the time. Still, in a letter to Pears in 1943, Britten writes to a traveling Pears: "Think of all the other married couples who are separated for ever so much longer!" When Britten died, a decade after the repeal of the buggery laws, Queen Elizabeth sent condolences to Pears under the thinly veiled guise of sharing sympathy with "a representative of all who had worked with Lord Britten."
This prohibition of homosexuality is partly responsible for Britten's monument of the 20th century music, the opera Peter Grimes, whose conception started 2 years into the Britten/Pears relationship. It's during the US trip that George Crabbe's poem- The Borough, was pointed out to Britten, & became the inspiration for the opera. The libretto gives us a Grimes not as a murderer, but an outsider, alienated from the life of his fishing village which rejects him, as Britten's homosexuality had isolated him growing up in the conservative seaside.
Britten was recognized as a gifted composer all through his life. He won the only scholarship offered by the Royal College of Music in 1930, at 17. The following year he met W. H. Auden with whom he collaborated on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers, radical both in politics & musical direction, & other works. Of more lasting importance was his meeting in 1936 with the tenor Peter Pears, who was to become his musical collaborator & inspiration as well as the partner with whom he was to spend the rest of his life. In early 1939, the pair followed Auden to the USA. There Britten composed Paul Bunyan, his 1st opera, with a libretto by Auden, as well as the 1st of many song cycles for Pears.
The Britten/Pears returned to England in 1942, Britten completing the choral works- Hymn to Saint Cecilia, his last collaboration with Auden, & A Ceremony of Carols during the long voyage. He had already begun work on his opera Peter Grimes, & the premiere at Sadler's Wells in 1945 was his greatest success so far. Britten was encountering opposition from sectors of the English musical establishment & he withdrew from the London scene, founding the English Opera Group in 1947 & the Aldeburgh Festival the following year, partly to showcase his own works.
Peter Grimes marked the start of a series of operas, including Billy Budd (1951) & The Turn of the Screw (1954). These operas share common themes, with the theme of the 'outsider' particularly prevalent. Most feature such a character, excluded or misunderstood by society.
In the last decade of his life, Britten suffered from bad health & depression. His late works became progressively more sparse in texture,including the opera- Death in Venice (1973),
Having previously refused a knighthood, Britten accepted a life peerage in July 1976 as Baron Britten, of Aldeburgh in the County of Suffolk. A few months later he died of heart failure at his house in Aldeburgh. He is buried in the churchyard there.
Here is a lovely memory to shake off the blues. October 9, 1991, our 12th anniversary, & after 4 days in Venice we love nothing more than to just set off walking. We would walk with no agenda & no guidebook.
Most tourists do Venice as a day trip, but we started our Italian journey in this amazing, unforgettable city, landing at Marco Polo International Airport & taking the water taxi into the city. Our first view of the city was of the fogging burning off, rays of sunlight hitting the basin at St. Marks where we disembarked. We stayed for 5 days at the start of our Italian adventure & ended it with another 3 days in Venice.
So, on October 9th, as we are allowing ourselves to get lost in neighborhoods seldom seen by the marauding groups of Americans, Germans & Japanese, we spy a poster for a concert that evening at the parish church of composer Antonio Lucio Vivaldi. We immediately decide to attend, as the end event of a special anniversary day. We worried about returning to the church. We often could not find amazing places, shops & restaurants a second time, as if the canal that we had marked to return had disappeared in the fog.
We did find our way back to the small candle lit church that evening & thrilled to hearing Le Quattro Stagioni & other pieces on period instruments in Vivaldi’s very own church.
Speaking of Vivaldi & hot men, & weren’t we doing that… how about tenor Zachary Stains in the maestro’s opera- Ercole su'l Termodonte. Naked hot tenors & Baroque Opera seems like a good idea to me.
I don't think that Vivaldi was gay... at least I didn't sleep with him, that I recall.
