Word: koestenbaum
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...three Elvis impersonators on tape; Desi, a woodwind tribute to I Love Lucy; and Metropolis Symphony, a five-movement orchestral salute to Superman. And on March 14, Daugherty's first opera, Jackie O, about guess who, was produced by Houston Grand Opera. Set to a libretto by Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the panegyric 1995 book Jackie Under My Skin, Jackie O is a surreal fantasy in which the former First Lady rubs shoulders with Liz Taylor and Andy Warhol, falls in and out of love with Aristotle Onassis and sings a climactic duet of posthumous reconciliation with J.F.K...
...laughography that chronicles the life and times of Jackie--from Bouvier to Kennedy to Jackie once again. Those who worship at the Altar of Jackie would be better off staying away from "Jackie: An American Life," and instead dote on those cherished Life magazines or testimonials like Wayne Koestenbaum's recent book "Jackie Under My Skin." If, however, you don't mind shameless forget-about-the-consequences humor and a more than healthy dose of icon exploitation, Jackie is a must...
...fitting (and in the eyes of many, predictable) that Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia" should be listening to Callas's voice as he seeks to express why opera means so much to him, a gay man dying of AIDS and bereft of his position in society. Koestenbaum is of the opinion that this scene serves to establish Hank's gay character, an effective use of opera in a "somewhat shlocky" film. Is Hank's character an opera queen ? Certainly not, according to Koestenbaum. No matter how much opera means in his life, "no opera queen's apartment is that organized...
Thus, the "Callas Cult" draws from a base much larger in the gay community than just opera queens, that of the professionals in smarmy suits, the successful businesspeople, etc. Koestenbaum, though claiming that his book is "an elegy to the opera queen," addresses the larger question of a universal appeal of opera to gays in general. His last chapter, entitled "A Pocket Guide to Queer Moment's in Opera," is a seemingly random (and highly personal) collection of instances in well-known operas that smack of ambiguity and promise beneath the surface...
...this day. To a society which stressed conformation, it spoke the language of individuality, and it exalted the aberrant. As our society becomes more secure in its heterogeneity, it is difficult to say if opera will find its cultural niche eroded. However, in The Queen's Throat, Wayne Koestenbaum seeks not to speculate on opera's future but to express the glory of opera's past and the drama of opera's present...