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Silverfoxesclub-digest In this issue:
-Humor: Beer
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1. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell
happened to your bra.
2. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering
when you are not.
8. WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you have mystical
Kung Fu powers, resulting in you getting your ass kicked.
Happy Memorial Day, There are some important names missing on the list of musicians, above all three 20th century composers. Sir Benjamen Britten, who also had a lifelong relationship with the tenor Peter Pears, for whom he wrote major roles in almost all of his operas. Francois Poulenc, a great french composer, who had a longtime relationship with the baritone Pierre Bernac. Finally a unique case: Samuel Barber and Giancarlo Menotti, two extremely successful composers, who lived with each other. Barber died many years ago, but Menotti, at 90, is still going strong. I've always been sorry that no one in an interview ever asked him about this, and what effect an intimate relationship had, if any, on their own work as composers. David
Note from Ben Boxer: You're right on all counts (Britten is already on the list), and we can add a fourth composer, Camille Saint-Sakns, and writers Julien Green and Jean Genet and artist/filmmaker Jean Cocteau. We should compile our own list. (That one is off the Web.) It would include Martial, the Roman poet, and the Roman writer Petronius, et al. I will do some extra research, and others can contribute.
You missed two of my favortis writers, one very famous, and
one known only to gays, 1. Edward E. Tanner III, who wrote
under the pseudonyms of Patrick Dennis and Virginia Rowans.
2. Paul Monette, who wrote Becoming a Man. 3. The former
conductor/composer/ Ned Rorem.
We forgot: just to name a few more.
David
Alan Turing, one of the 20th century's great mathematicians and a key figure in deciding the outcome of WW2 because of his work in cryptography. "I was meant to be a composer and will be I'm sure...Don't ask me to go play football--please." ---Gian Carlo Menotti, future composer, in a note written to his mother at the age of nine.
In another life, I was a music critic at a major international daily newspaper and thus had access to many stars of the music world. On the rare occasions when the names of Menotti and Barber came up, there was always a tacit understanding among those present that they were a "couple," but in those more pristine times forty years ago, nothing more than assumptions would have been made in "polite" society, which was generally what classical musicians were. Of course, they had their moments. Once, in Boston, I was present when a certain great female opera star of the time made a recording. She struck a particularly high note and held it forever. When she came down off her high, the whole crew (including me) burst into applause. As no members of the "public" were present, she could afford to be herself, so she blurted out, "Boy, you gotta have a tight asshole to sing a note like that one!" It broke us up. I had studied opera myself with a renowned Metropolitan Opera coach in Manhattan and remember her telling me in her thick Viennese accent to "schtand on you tippy-toes und mit tight buttocks SQUEEZE dot note outta de top of you head und TINK (think) HIGH!" That's about as rough as it got in my music world. One of my best friends in earlier days was the kid brother of Leonard Bernstein. We were in the Army together. My perception of him was that he was VERY straight. Although I had heard rumors about his brother Lennie being gay, I would not have dared asked him about it. That's the way it was then. That is NOT the way it is now; therefore, I surfed through cyberspace this afternoon on my Copernic system which employs almost all the search engines available and finds virtually everything if you come up the right keywords, which is not always easy. I was looking for everything I could find on Menotti and Barber just to see how much successful prying into their private lives has been done. The answer: zilch! We seem to know as much them as we knew forty years ago. There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, in the sense that when both of them have gone on to a higher reward, those who know may share what they know more liberally than they have up to now. Menotti is 90. Barber passed at age 71 in 1981. He was born in 1910, Menotti in 1911, so they were almost the same age. I will share with you the indicators of their relationship which I found on the Web today. That they were gay lovers for 53 years seems likely. That the living Menotti still loves the dead Barber also seems likely from what I read. Menotti seems to have an "adopted" son named Chip. I don't know, beyond the words, what that really means. Menotti was 17 when they met, Barber 18. It was probably love at first sight because they were both beauties. Here is the stuff I found on various sites. Perhaps some among you can add to the information therein.
**** The friendship of Barber and Menotti is legendary. They were the exact opposite -- in temperament, background, personality, aesthetics, attitudes, and musical style. Barber, an affluent, small-town American, aristocratic, disciplined Anglo-Saxon to the core, acerbically witty, solitary, reserved, balanced, stable; Menotti, the volatile European, amusing, dramatic, fascinated by the fantastic and marvelous, outlandish, bizarre, delightfully eccentric. Yet the uncontrolled Latin and the controlled Anglo-Saxon were a necessary catalyst for each other. Their symbiotic relationship greatly influenced the course of American music. The Barber family welcomed Menotti as a son and had an enormous calming effect on this tempestuous young man. The Menotti we know today -- his somewhat corporate image and his mastery of the English language -- is greatly a product of his living with this cultivated Pennsylvania family during his maturing years. Menotti in turn introduced Barber to the manners and milieu of Europe, and Barber became in many respects a Europeanized American.
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During the summer of 1940 in Dallas, Oregon, Johnnie was at a Boy Scout Jamboree with troops from all over the Pacific Northwest. Johnnie was a 13 year-old scout envied by a lot of the boys for his musical talents. During a blanket toss Johnnie was hurled up into the air, about ten or twelve feet (according to childhood scout friend Jim Low), the boys holding the blanket lost their grip or let go and Johnnie slammed hard onto the ground, ramming a dry, stiff straw into his left ear. Johnnie immediately lost 50% of his hearing, no first aid was given, and 13 year-old Johnnie didn't mention it to his parents, thinking it would pass. But it didn't. (Makes you wonder if he was being persecuted by his fellow scouts for being gay. Kids are cruel, and some of us were put through the paces at that age.) Johnnie Ray was not part Blackfoot Indian. Press agents circulated a story that Johnnie's childhood Indian name was "Little White Cloud" and was asked in an interview at the height of his popularity what Indian blood he had. Johnnie looked at his shoes and came up with "Blackfoot", it stuck forever. Although he faded from popularity in the United States in the late 50's, he continued to be popular in the UK. The power and clarity in his voice insured him a legion of fans. He toured Australia many times, and had more performances there than any other American performer.
In later years Johnnie Ray had liver problems
and died of liver failure in February of 1990. Of course, there's Phillip Glass (composer), Ludwig Wittengenstein (philosopher)...
Eric When I was studying at the opera school in Toronto in the early sixties, it was well known. A soprano studyine there remarked one day that she had been reading a biography of Menotti,and "I kept hoping he'd meet some nice young girl, but then he met Samuel Barber!" At a composition class, someone asked the professor what he thought of Barber/Menotti's opera "Vanessa" and he replied "Two queers writing about a pregnant woman!" Menotti's adopted son is called Frances, son of italian parents who are still alive, but agreed to Menotti adopting him officially to have someone to pass on his name and money to. I ahve no idea if there a sexual relationship between them or not. A couple of years ago, if talked about it in an italian TV programme which I unfortunately didn't see.
David Geary End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #253
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