The Gayest Thing I Did This Week
“What’s the gayest thing you did this week?” ask Carolyn Bergier and Melody Kamali, the hosts of the pop culture podcast Dyking Out, at the beginning of each episode.
For me, it would have to be “Baroqueer” at ShapeShifter Lab on Monday, Oct. 23.
This program of dance music, spanning the Baroque to neo-Baroque, was put on by the Brooklyn-based organization ChamberQUEER, who subsequently took it “on the road” to Boston for the Early Music America Summit.
I had the pleasure, back in March, of attending the first “Baroqueer” at Branded Saloon. While ShapeShifter was less packed than Branded, the crowd felt just as merry. When I arrived, most of the seats were taken, so I awkwardly joined a table of two.
“Hi, I’m Carolyn,” one of them said to me. That’s when I recognized Bergier’s pink hair. “Oh, I know you! I love your podcast,” I gushed. Fortunately, the concert started before I did anything more embarrassing.
Claudio Monteverdi’s “Zefiro torna” — with sweet dissonances in the slow sections, and stomach-dropping harmonies — was buttressed by Jules Biber’s bassline, with soprano Danielle Buonaiuto echoed by Elijah McCormack.
Next, they played the minuets from Cullen O’Neil’s Suite in G Minor, which was interwoven throughout the program. If you hadn’t have told me, I would have guessed it was written in the 18th, not the 21st, century.
I recognized Michel Lambert’s “Vos mépris chaque jour” from the last “Baroqueer.” But Handel’s “Love in her eyes” was new to me. “Love on her lips is straying,” sang Buonaituo. “Love on her breast sits panting… To set the heart on fire,” making eye contact with violinist Rafa Prendergast. This is so gay, I thought.
However, what really took my breath away was Purcell’s “O Solitude,” sung by McCormack, who describes himself as a “male soprano.” The cylindrical “O” hung in the air, still resounding when he sang the lower “solitude,” forming a dyad with himself. It made me mourn my pre-T voice.
A harpsichord interlude can have a lot in common with the dreaded drum solo. But this was not the case with Peter Lim’s performance of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert’s “Passacaille d’Armide,” a piece with which I was unfamiliar. His jingly earrings and lacy blue blouse complemented the tactile playing.
The harpsichord sounded positively jazzy in Astor Piazzolla’s “Café,” which had a sexy cello solo full of percussive pizzicato and expressive slides. As a theme was passed between violinists Keats Dieffenbach and Prendergast, I was caught by surprise when Lim pulled a recorder out of nowhere.
I couldn’t stop looking at Brian Mummert’s winged sneakers in Rufus Wainwright’s “Poses.” “I'm drunk and wearing flip flops on Fifth Avenue,” he sang. “Once you've fallen from classical virtue,” the line taking on new meaning in a classical concert.
The final piece was “Baroqueer’s version” of Julius Eastman’s “Stay On It.” The repeating riff gained momentum, as Mummert added sforzando marimba, with long pauses and an increasingly crazed feel.
My favorite moment was when Biber played a French Baroque flourish, as Mummert sang, “stay on it stay on it,” like a lament. The piece came to a gradual stop, like a wind-up toy running out of juice.
I lied — while “Baroqueer” was definitely the gayest musical thing I did this week, the other gayest thing was “Fran Con” at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge on Thursday, Oct. 26.
“Fran Con” is the more intellectual, much-less-straight version of “Santa Con,” where, instead of Santa Claus, everyone dresses up like Fran Lebowitz. Oversized blazer, dad jeans, cowboy boots, tortoiseshell glasses.
I was pleased to learn that Fran Con, which I reported on for Out Traveler last year, has since become mainstream enough for the New York Times. And as you can see from the Times’ photos, Bergier was there, too.
“I swear I’m not following you,” I said, relieved that she looked happy to see me, and not terrified. “I guess there’s more overlap between a queer classical music concert and a Fran Lebowitz convention than I would have thought.” Thankfully, she laughed.
