Baroccosexual
Occasionally, I come across an event that is just so “me” that I have to go. This was the case with “A Night at the Post-Opera,” a “Transcendence” drag show presented by Haus of Melt.
It took place — on Saturday, Nov. 4 — at Grove 34 in Astoria. Because all the best kings are in Queens.
The title — a play on “post-op” — was not the only pun to catch my attention. “The dress code is Puccini cvnt meets Baroccosexual,” the invitation reads. My eye also spied “Throb Fosse on cello” in the lineup.
Opera was especially on my mind because, just the night before, we’d gone to the opening of X at the Met, which I reviewed for Parterre Box. But on Saturday, I was running late because of an Alkemie concert that I wrote about in “Screen Time.”
Because of that I, regrettably, missed Fosse’s pre-show ABBA covers. “It’s not every day that you have a drag king playing the cello,” said host Redd Flag. That is, according to my partner, who’d already gotten there. “Every day in my life,” they texted me.
Once I arrived, I saw Flag dressed as Marie Antoinette, with opera glasses and a wedding-cake wig. “This costume is shoved so far up my ass,” she said.
Early on, Tuna Melt himself rapped about the “wheel of fate” to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. There were also performances by Myster E Mel Kiki, Stevie Dicks, Fatty Gemini, and Oliver Herface.
But a couple drag Things stole my heart. First, Aladdin Firm, in a hot pink periwig and ruff, sang “Voi che sapete” from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
Despite Firm’s questionable Italian diction, the performance was brilliant, especially considering Cherubino is a well-known breeches role.
Finally, Klondyke —who had just gotten back from performing in Taylor Mac’s Bark of Millions at the Sydney Opera House — sang “Vesti la giubba” from Pagliacci. It made perfect sense with their signature goth clown makeup.
As an encore, they sang the baroque-y “Pietà Signore.” Flag couldn’t have described Klondyke’s rumbling bass-baritone any better: “I felt those notes deep in my pussy,” she said.
