Yterday at Salon, Caleb Cra, thor of the highly praised novel Necsary Errors, talked a b about beg a gay novelist and the effects non-heterosexual subject matter has on the chanc for a novel’s publitn. In rponse to a qutn…
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BILLY BUDD: A GAY IN?
Melville’s novel and Brten’s opera are poignant remrs of the bety and relevance of gay history. * is billy budd gay *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTMelville’s novel and Brten’s opera are poignant remrs of the bety and relevance of gay BelcherMr. Belcher is an edor the Hong Kong office of Kageyama — Teatro ll’Opera di RomaIs “Billy Budd” the ultimate morn gay antihero who almost didn’t speak his name? This year marks the centennial of the random disvery of Herman Melville’s novella by a scholar who was rearchg a bgraphy of the thor, and for a century “Billy Budd” has been analyzed and theorized as the ultimate battle of nocence, envy, voyrism and latent homosexualy.
In an era when the “Will & Grace” reboot nstut a re-analysis of gay nscns, the -the-shadows subtleti of Melville’s tale are thrillg to Benjam Brten’s opera of “Billy Budd, ” wrten more than 25 years after the novel was unearthed, returns to the Royal Opera London this month a new productn that has mmerized dienc Madrid and Rome over the last few years. Although “Billy Budd” n be seen as another dreary tale of good-vers-evil masked as a tragic gay love story, s place gay lerary history is unniable. But is the opera “Billy Budd” and the 1962 film that sealed s place gay history at a time when there was ltle such popular culture to hold onto.
And they mt ntue to face ath and war after their beloved Billy has been taken om “Billy Budd” the opera has long been seen as a te watershed moment gay history.