|
I started listening to opera because the convulsive vibrato of a trained voice embarrassed me. It filled me with an uncanny discomfort that I now call pleasure. But in those dim days I didn’t call it pleasure. I didn’t try to imitate Carmen, Don José, or Escamillo. I didn’t try to fill the room with magnificent sound. Instead, I wallowed in embarrassment; I cringed; and I silently vowed, “In shame I will find paradise.”
-- Wayne Koestenbaum, The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality,
and the Mystery of Desire
|
