She had a number of infatuations with women throughout her life, including an unrequited love for Virginia Woolf. At only 12, Smyth announced her intention to study at the Leipzig Conservatory, which she later attended. Georg Solti).Īs to be expected from a pioneering female composer and suffragette, Smyth displayed a keen musicality and sense of social justice from a young age. Despite myriad primary accounts that discuss Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality, the Russian government’s long history of anti-gay censorship has muddied the biographical waters in Tchaikovsky’s beloved homeland.
He dedicated the work to his lover Vladimir “Bob” Davydov (who also happened to be his nephew). Perhaps the closest Tchaikovsky came to publicly revealing his orientation was with his Symphony No. Not unlike Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky’s short-lived marriage to a younger woman, Antonina Miliukova, was a catastrophe. Though the composer wrote about his sexuality at length in his letters to his brother Modest (also gay), Tchaikovsky’s immense fame and fear of flouting social convention precluded him from living openly with a male partner. 5, Egyptian (Jean-Yves Thibaudet with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, dir. Listen to Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. Some have speculated that he might have pursued trysts in Algiers, then a popular destination for European homosexuals. Despite this painful chapter in his life, he remained social and outgoing, hosting lavish soirees-where he supposedly performed in drag on more than one occasion-and indulging in frequent travel to exotic locales in Northern Africa. The marriage was an unhappy one: after the deaths of their two young children, Saint-Saëns walked out on Truffot and never remarried.
In 1875, the 40-year-old Saint-Saëns surprised friends and family when he hastily married Marie-Laure Truffot, the sister of one of his pupils. Listen to “Come rosa in su la spina” from Handel’s Apollo e Dafne (HWV 122) (Russell Braun, Les violons du Roy, dir. Ellen Harris wrote about his private life in Handel as Orpheus: Voice and Desire in the Chamber Cantatas, which explores themes of sexuality in his works and remains the authoritative book on the subject. However, what is undeniable is that Handel socialized in circles in which homosexuality was an open secret, from the Italian and German courts to his artistic cadres in London. He once dismissed King George II’s inquiries about his love life by insisting that he had no time for anything but music. William Christie).Īn intensely private man, Handel never married. Listen to “Enfin, il est en ma puissance” from Lully’s Armide (Les Arts Florissants dir. By the time Lully died, he’d fallen from the King’s favor. Lully’s affair with a handsome music page named Brunet eventually leaked to the general public, who literally sang about it in the streets of Paris. However, Lully’s lack of discretion contributed to his downfall: the King could not turn a blind eye to Lully’s brazen liaisons with both men and women. Check out this list of 15 composers, some of whom are still living, and let us know who your favorite queer composers are in the comments below.Īfter dancing with King Louis XIV in 1653’s Ballet royal de la nuit, Lully was engaged as the court’s royal composer, essentially granting him a monopoly over new music and kickstarting what would be a charmed career. These 50-plus power players, from Laverne Cox to the cast of Queer Eye, each make a unique contribution - and share here where they first felt seen by Hollywood and what work still needs to be done to achieve equitable representation.Can you imagine a world without the music of Handel, Tchaikovsky, or Britten? These great composers of the past are just a few of many important musical figures who did not identify as heterosexual. Thanks to the showrunners driving authentic stories, filmmakers bucking decades-old heteronormative paradigms, actors emboldened to live more honestly and platforms bankrolling so much of it, being gay, queer, transgender or any other other has never been more widely embraced in the entertainment industry.įor its inaugural Pride issue, The Hollywood Reporter homed in on the talent and makers helping boost visibility and creating opportunities for members of the extended LGBTQ community. LGBTQ representation in Hollywood is at an all-time high.