A celebration of inclusivity and our beautiful LGBTQ+ community, Poole Pride is proud to present Destination Opera’s Meditation on Queer Art Song, offering a new take on some familiar and lesser known music from the classical repertoire.
Presented as part of the all-day family-friendly festival, the afternoon performance at Lighthouse on Saturday 7 June will be followed by a Music Making Workshop hosted by Neil Valentine and Ed Lee from Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Dorset-based international opera singer and producer Jon Valender has chosen music for the recital by composers such as Tchaikovsky, Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc, who were known to be (or widely accepted as) gay, as well as those such as Ivor Gurney who were assumed to be.
Jon explains: “In putting together this recital I had lots of choices to make and have ended up with what I think of as a meditation on queerness focusing on late 19th and early 20th century. I have chosen three famous gay composers from across the globe and then created a miscellany of British composers to reflect upon their queer experience across the decades.
“In choosing composers I have had to use some supposition and guess work. There is no proof, for example, that either George Butterworth or Ivor Gurney were gay, but sometimes the evidence that they weren’t
straight is all that we have to go on. Gurney, one of the saddest figures amongst British composers, famously told a friend that when he died he should burn everything he had written that wasn’t deemed of suitable quality. Sadly this friend was overly diligent, and of his 330 known works only about 90 remain. Who is to say that a similar thing didn’t happen with letters of proof of his sexuality?”
Accompanied by pianist Sam O’Neal, Jon’s programme includes Butterworth’s setting of AE Housman’s eloquent mourning poem With Rue My Heart is Laden, Britten’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s The Choirmaster’s Burial, and Samuel Barber’s Three Songs cycle using James Joyce texts.
“The final song is the biggest in scale,” says Jon, “describing armies of green haired monsters on horseback coming out of the sea and asking why my heart doesn’t suffer on such a vast scale? It feels like the kind of sentiment that an over the top gay man would scream into his hairbrush!”
Participants in the Music Making Workshop will be creating new music inspired by some of the music from the recital. It’s open to everyone – feel free to bring an instrument or use one supplied, no musical experience needed, just enthusiasm!
The recital and workshop are both part of Poole Pride’s day-long free festival that also includes cabaret, comedy and music performances as well as workshops, talks and crafts. General daytime entry to Poole Pride is free, but visitors are invited to ‘pay what you feel’ – thank you for choosing a price that suits you.
Individual entry to events is first-come first-served on the day – just turn up and show your daytime ticket.
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