He Ain't Heavy -- He's My Brother

Most children learn the words to The Star Spangled Banner in elementary or middle school. Many also become familiar with America the Beautiful, whose lyrics first appeared as a poem by Katharine Lee Bates entitled "Pikes Peak." After being coupled with Samuel A. Ward's music, the song was published in 1910. While its first verse paints pictures of "spacious skies, amber waves of grain, and purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain," its last line ("And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea") has always resonated with the concept of The American Dream.

There was a period, during the 20th century, when the inherent value of brotherhood was taught in schools and summer camps as a noble sentiment (it wasn't until the Sixties when concepts of "sisterhood" began to solidify).

When Cole Porter's musical entitled Panama Hattie had its Broadway premiere on October 30, 1940 (little more than a year before Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese bombers), two of Porter's songs became popular hits. One was "Make It Another Old Fashioned, Please." The other was a duet for Ethel Merman and Joan Carroll entitled "Let's Be Buddies." Having always wondered if, during wartime, this song should have been sung by men, I was delighted to find the following recording (performed by Wilfried Van den Brande & Dirk Baert) on YouTube.


In 1961, when How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying became Broadway's biggest hit, the show's final production number put a comedic spin on the concept of brotherhood being a social force that could even unite the fiercest competitors.


In his recent article on HuffPost entitled "New Documentary Will Track The Lives Of Gay Men Seen At Pool Party In 1940s Missouri," Curtis M. Wong describes how Geoff Story's 1996 discovery of some home movies on 8mm film from the 1940s at an estate sale in St. Louis led to the creation of a new documentary.

"After a handful of viewings, Story opted to put the fragile films aside out of fear he’d damage them. Watching the men in the films also struck a nerve given that Story, who is gay, had yet to come out to his parents when he purchased the reels. By 2017, however, he digitized the films and began screening them for friends and acquaintances in hopes of learning more about the men seen in the footage. Thanks to beer labels, gas ration stickers, and even markers on a military uniform, Story said he and [healthcare worker] Beth Prusaczyk have determined that the footage must have been shot around 1943 to 1945. At present, they’re able to identify five of the men seen in the film, which they’ve learned was spliced together from multiple parties. Among them are celebrity hairstylist Buddy Walton and his partner, Sam Micotto, who owned the home at which Story attended the estate sale in 1996."

"Friends and family members of those men have come forward for interviews, giving Gay Home Movie a deeply human angle Story wasn’t expecting. Ultimately, Story would like Gay Home Movie to serve as “a learning tool for healing in families.” Still, he can’t help but get a little wistful when he thinks about the men in the reels, forever frozen in time as their youthful selves. 'When I first watched the film, I was the same age as the men were,' he said. 'I’ve turned 50 and I continue to grow old, but these men have never aged. It gives me a strange perspective on life.'”

From ancient Greece to present times, male bonding has often led to surprisingly intimate friendships (see the BBC's report entitled "Lovers of Modena Skeletons Holding Hands Were Both Men"). Thus, it should come as no surprise that military buddies, members of the same team of firefighters, and the crew of a fearsome 18th-century British Man-of-War should find themselves caught in the grip of a love that dare not speak its name.

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It wasn't a conscious plan. Each year, as Bay area theatre companies announce their opening productions for the upcoming season, my calendar fills up with commitments that leave fewer and fewer dates available to attend performances at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. This year, one of those days was September 11 and one of the performances I had chosen was entitled My Will and My Life.

Written by Harry Cronin, directed by Christopher P. Kelly, and presented by Oakland’s PAGE86 Productions, My Will and My Life is a poignant monologue performed by John Tranchitella in remembrance of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Tranchitella appears as a New York City fireman, recovering alcoholic, and closeted gay man named George who has been asked to lead an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting several weeks after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The man he is filling in for is, or rather was, Father Mychal Judge (who died in the collapse of the North Tower and was the first victim to be identified following the disaster).

John Tranchitella as George in My Will and My Life

A Franciscan priest and a chaplain for the New York City Fire Department, Father Mychal was a recovering alcoholic who reached out to his fellow first responder and convinced George to attend his first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. As George (a devout Catholic) recalls the priest's hearty laugh and unique way of speaking, he confesses that he didn't really want to attend that night's meeting because he had been contemplating suicide that morning. He also relates how he had tried to convince his fellow firefighter to leave the North Tower's lobby on that fateful day, but Father Mychal refused to go and, instead, kept trying to help others who were dying.

New York City Fire Department Chaplain Mychal Judge

As George nervously addresses his fellow AA members, he tells them that he arrived at their meeting with a specific goal, explaining how Father Mychal not only helped him down the path to sobriety, but also toward making peace with the fact that, though he is a homosexual, God still loves him. The priest's simple explanation was that he loves Jesus, Jesus is a man, Jesus loves him, and if Jesus can love another man, then so can George. For a man like George, who spent a lifetime filled with self-loathing, learning that Father Mychal was gay proved to be a life-changing moment. Father Mychal's friendship helped George make peace with his homosexuality and now, with his friend no longer able to attend meetings, George feels compelled to start living a full and honest life.

John Tranchitella as George in My Will and My Life

Poignantly performed by Tranchitella, My Will and My Life is a deeply moving monologue peppered with surprising moments of laughter

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With the question of gender equality causing people to look more closely at how women and minorities are represented in various fields of entertainment, it's interesting to study a survey of operatic roles compiled by mezzo-soprano Brooke Larimer. In analyzing the casting requirements for the 25 most frequently performed operas, she found 107 roles for female principals and 152 for male principals as well as a total of 421 jobs for women and 468 jobs for men.

Had it been performed more frequently, Benjamin Britten's 1951 opera, Billy Budd, would have definitely been the curve breaker in Larimer's spreadsheet. First performed at the Royal Opera House on December 1, 1951, the work requires an all-male cast comprised of 23 principals, 40 chorus members, four offstage chorus members, eight members of the children's chorus, four dancers, and two supernumeraries.

Christian Van Horn (Claggart) and William Burden (Vere)
in a scene from Billy Budd (Photo by: Cory Weaver)

Christopher Oram, the set and costume designer for Michael Grandage’s production (which premiered at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera on May 20, 2010 and is currently being used by the San Francisco Opera) notes that:

“The set was inspired by the auditorium of the Glyndebourne Opera House. The shape is evocative of nautical architecture (curves, warm wood, tiers, galleries). Grandage wanted to make the audience feel like they are ‘on the vessel.’ When Vere stands on the quarterdeck commanding his ship, he commands the entire auditorium. [We wanted to capture the feeling] when you go on board a real ship so you can experience the claustrophobia. The decks are very short. You are very close to each other. There is no daylight down below decks. The body of the ship is like the belly of a whale. The structure is like a rib cage.”

While many have tried to depict the tensions between Billy and Claggart as a struggle between the forces of good and evil, others have rightly suggested that Herman Melville's novel and Britten's opera embody the festering jealousy and sadistic tendencies that often find a home within the soul of a closeted gay man (as opposed to someone who is open about and at peace with his sexual orientation).

It's also important to remember that, back in 1797 (when the opera takes place), most men lacked a sufficient vocabulary with which to articulate their same-sex attraction, feelings of brotherly affection, or sexual orientation. Founded in 1682 and named by William Penn, Philadelphia, known as "The City of Brotherly Love," takes its name from the Greek words philos ("love" or "friendship") and adelphos ("brother").

While it's no secret that homosexuality was illegal in the Royal Navy for several centuries (the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 decriminalized homosexual acts between men over 21 in England and Wales but did not apply to the Merchant Navy or Armed Forces), same-sex marriage only became legal in the United Kingdom in 2014.

In 2017, when the love letters written between Britten and his long-term lover, tenor Peter Pears, were put on display at Britten's home in Aldeburgh, their sentimental (almost flowery) style may have surprised some readers. In a letter written in 1941, Pears describes the composer as "My most beautiful of all little blue grey, mouse catching, pearly bottomed, creamy-thighed, soft-waisted mewing rat-pursuers! How are you? My beauty!”

As Zachary Woolfe (the classical music editor of The New York Times, who sees the opera's flogging scene as a metaphor for gay sex) explains:

“Most damning, for all of its reliance on declarations of thoughts and feelings rather than their revelation through action, the opera simply doesn’t say very much. Like a limp therapy session, there is much talk but little insight or interest. Billy Budd is a work populated by people with secret feelings, but these secrets never translate into dramatic tension. Considering all the emotions in play, the temperature onstage remains stubbornly cool. You get the impression of feelings unconfronted, of characters and situations expertly, even beautifully, glossed over rather than explored.”

John Chest stars in Billy Budd (Photo by: Cory Weaver)

“It is worth remembering that Billy Budd is a product of the gay closet. It is an opera composed by a closeted gay man, to a libretto written by E.M. Forster (a closeted gay man), based on a novella by a man who scholars often suggest was closeted, and that revolves around the attractions of men to other men. Though Melville protests, when describing the malevolent master-at-arms, Claggart, that his mysterious evil nature ‘partakes nothing of the sordid or sensual,’ there is no mistaking the secret desire at the core of his hatred of Billy. The novella and the opera do more than describe the closet, with its anxiety and coded messages; detached and diffident, they feel closeted themselves. Both also inadvertently reveal a great truth about the closet: It’s boring to watch. Like any magic realm with its languages and codes, it is wholly engrossing only when you’re inside it; from the outside, it is less compelling, less mysterious than evasive.”

Christian Van Horn as Claggart in Billy Budd (Photo by: Cory Weaver)

Previously staged by the San Francisco Opera in 1978, 1985, and 2004, the 2019 revival has been directed by Ian Rutherford with lighting by David Manion and major contributions coming from fight director Dave Maier and chorus director Ian Robertson. Christopher Oram's unit set creates an almost ghostly atmosphere upon which the large ensemble carries out the daily chores of life aboard an 18th-century warship as the crew yearns for the excitement of a sea battle with a "Frenchie."

William Burden delivers an often brooding, introspective portrayal of Melville's
"Starry" Vere (commander of the H.M.S. Indomitable) while receiving solid support from Philip Horst (Mr. Redburn), Wayne Tigges (Mr. Flint), Christian Pursell (Mr. Ratcliffe), and Robert Brubaker (Red Whiskers). Others in the ensemble include Matthew O'Neill as Squeak, Edward Nelson as the Bosun, Sidney Outlaw as the ship's First Mate, and Kenneth Overton as the Second Mate.

John Chest stars in Billy Budd (Photo by: Cory Weaver)

John Chest shines in the title role while Christian Van Horn presents as a sonorous, sinister, and slimy Claggart. Special mention goes to tenor Brenton Ryan for his superb performance as the Novice and to Philip Skinner as Billy's friend, Dansker.

Brenton Ryan (The Novice) and John Chest (Billy Budd)
in a scene from Billy Budd (Photo by: Cory Weaver)

With Lawrence Renes on the podium, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra did an exceptional job of mining the riches contained in Britten's challenging score. I have often felt that the orchestral score for both Billy Budd and 1945's Peter Grimes outshines much of Britten's vocal writing. However, this recording from a live broadcast of the San Francisco Opera's 1978 production of Billy Budd (starring Dale Duesing) offers some exceptional sound quality.