Queer n There	Queer n There Archive

Montreal-- A given voice will have its spots sweet and thin, its burrs and idiosyncrasies. But mix a bunch together, like strawberries in a blender, and the particularities cancel each other out. You end up with something like the sonic equivalent of berry essence. Wasn't conjuring the vox populi the idea behind the chorus in Greek drama? Today, the populi is divided. Given the fondness of Westerners-- following America's lead-- for divvying themselves up into distinct identities and support groups, it's a wonder we don't have such warty musical beasts as the Munich Blind Men's Chorus, the Kidney Dialysis Singers, or the Cambridge Incest-Survivor Treble Choir. But luckily we do have many gay choruses. And from July 17th to 24th, more than 160 of them from the US and Canada-- and a sprinkling from England, France, Germany, Ireland, and South Africa-- will converge on Montreal for the 7th International Festival-- which means days of singing, performing, and, one presumes, lots of fa sol la ti do. With some 5000 singers attending, this will be the largest glaysbian arts event ever thrown, claim the organizers, the Washington, DC-based GALA Choruses. Singers will group themselves into festival choirs, comprised, variously, of gay men, lesbians, lesbians and gay men, and-- those experts at singing both high and low-- the transgendered. It all leads up to a grand performance with festival choirs and the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir on Friday, July 23rd at Notre-Dame Basilica. For more info, browse to www.galachoruses.org, call 202-467-5830, or write galaed@galachoruses.org.

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New York-- The air crackled with electricity like before a thunderstorm. Somehow the gay cultural products of what Boyd McDonald calls the Golden Age of the 40s, 50s, and 60s-- when homosexuality flourished behind a veil-- have enduring allure. Who can hear Judy Garland belt out "The Man That Got Away" in the 1954 Hollywood blockbuster A Star is Born without sensing that the gay revolution was itching to burst forth? While the soundtrack to the film has never been out of print, a new Sony Legacy release, with the Columbia LP's original cover art, gives new-to-disk underscorings and vocal outtakes over which the connoisseur will want to linger. Garland's face is lesbian-boyish, her voice cigarette-husky and capable of indelicate swings of amplitude. No wonder her character seemed freighted with so much Inner Truth to legions of closet drama queens. In the 50s, that echt gay sensibility could strike a broad cultural chord. With direction by George Cukor, music by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics of Ira Gershwin, A Star is Born drew on some of Hollywood's greatest talents. It's one of the few musical films elected for long-term preservation by the Library of Congress. This Sony Legacy disk joins a continuing line of interesting releases of original soundtracks, often with heretofore unknown cuts, and detailed liner notes. Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story is next. For more info, browse to www.legacyrecordings.com/soundtracks.