It Ain't Over  | Opera | Advocate.com

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It Ain't Over
Deborah Voigt, who is starring in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Met, proves opera to be full of drama, excitement, and relevance.
By Robert Hilferty
An Advocate.com exclusive posted March 17, 2008
It Ain't Over

Opera queens are gay men who love opera and worship divas, dead or alive. They memorize historic performances, know all the high notes, mimic the mad scenes, and relish in backstage gossip.

But divas who are simultaneously gay icons -- the way Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland are in the pop world -- are far and few between. Maria Callas is prime example, an artist whose Will to Divadom trumped any shortcomings in her voice, and whose life turned as tragic as that of any of the heroines she played. She sacrificed herself for her art, like Tosca, and her turbulent passion cut through your ears directly to your heart, inevitably seared in the process.

Gay men idolized and identified with Callas in a time when the almighty closet ruled. Terrence McNally penned a famous play in her honor, Master Class, and Franco Zeffirelli, who directed her in opera, also made a movie about her called Callas Forever. There are countless examples from other gay artists of lesser status.

Nowadays gay men flock to another American soprano, Deborah Voigt. The 47-year-old, one of the world’s leading dramatic sopranos, has somehow become a gay icon, a notion that she’s aware of but didn't cultivate herself. She far outruns figures like Marilyn Horne and Jessye Norman who've come close to the lavender lair, but no banana.

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