DECEMBER 6, 1996 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 23

EVENINGS OUT

Baritone plays many romantic leads, but waits for a gay one

by Richard Berrong Cleveland-Baritone Grant Youngblood was in town recently for Cleveland Opera's remarkably fine production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Because he is open about his sexuality, he had some particularly interesting things to say, not only about his

Grant Youngblood

career, but about being gay in the world of opera, the problems it can cause and the advantages it can offer.

Though still young, Youngblood has already assumed several complex leading roles. Among them are the villainous but sexually attractive Scarpia in Tosca, the immoral but charming Don Giovanni in Mozart's opera of the same name, and the almost equally lusty toreador, Escamillo, in Carmen.

Roles such as these give Youngblood the chance to prove again and again an important point. When I asked him whether being gay had played any role in his career, the baritone explained that one difficulty openly gay singers sometimes face is when they want to do romantic leads. A few directors still seem unaware that a good opera performer, whatever his or her sexuality, is an actor as well as a singer, and avoid hiring

openly gay artists because they do not believe that they can be convincing in heterosexual love scenes. (This is not the case with Cleveland Opera, fortunately.)

When Grant, as Count Almaviva, expressed his contrite love to his wife, Rosina, and his not at all contrite desire to his servant, Susanna, on the stage of the State Theater, he once again made the stillnecessary point that gays are not limited to or by their sexuality. Indeed, Cleveland Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg wrote of him: "This is one of Mozart's studs who obviously has little trouble conquering (most) women.”

Indeed, the chance to become someone other than who he was was what initially attracted Youngblood to opera. When still a student in college, he relished the opportunity to portray characters with qualities that he did not then see himself possessing. Even today, operatic acting gives him the possibility of experimenting with all sorts of characters very different from himself.

So far there are not many operas that allow gays to play gays, though that is changing quite rapidly. Other works allow ambiguity along those lines, however, and Youngblood is interested in doing one of them, the title role in Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd. Similarly, he would like a chance to connect with his Native American heritage as part of his career, and hopes to have an opportunity to become involved in some opera dealing with American Indian culture.

That is, perhaps, one of the real fascinations of the theater for any artist. It offers the opportunity to both expand the awareness of the audience by exposing them to perspectives foreign to them, and to expand the awareness of the performer as he or she works to understand and convey experiences other than his or her own. With more openly gay singers such as Grant Youngblood making a name for themselves in opera, and more operas dealing with gay themes being produced, artists such as Youngblood are now looking to opera as yet another means of conveying the gay experience to the general public.

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