GAY PEOPLE'S CHRO

December 31, 1999

eveningsout

Countertenor Daniels is fully the equal of castrato music

Sento Amor

David Daniels

Virgin Veritas

Reviewed by Jason Serinus

The resurgence of authentic period music performance has created a demand for countertenors, those men whose voices sound natural and full in the alto, mezzo and even soprano ranges normally assigned to women. They are believed to most clearly resemble the sound of the castrati, singers castrated as boys to preserve their high voices, for whom much 18th-century vocal music was written.

In the five years since his professional debut, gay American countertenor David Daniels has become among the most sought after countertenors on the planet. Every sound he makes is gorgeous. His lowest notes have great beauty, the highest astounding power. His runs are amazingly fluid, and he is fully the equal of the great technical demands of this music.

David Daniels

Though his trill does not equal that of Sutherland or Sills, and the midvoice lacks the power of the tenors, mezzos and sopranos who sometimes sing this music, Daniels'

With friends like this...

Brandon Teena, center, and his girlfriend Lana Tisdel, right, enjoy an evening out with Michelle Lotter in 1993.

Teena, born female but living as a man, was raped and later murdered by Lotter's brother John and another friend, Thomas Nissen, after they found out he was transgender. On Thursday January 6, the Cleveland Cinematheque will show The Brandon Teena Story, a documentary that focuses on the final weeks of Teena's life in Falls City, Nebraska.

The movie deals with homophobia, self-hatred, and violence in rural America. The murderers, their families, Teena's friends and family, local law enforcement officials, townspeople, social workers and jurors all are interviewed in the film.

The film includes parts of Sheriff Charles Laux's insensitive interview of Teena when he reported the rape. Laux's failure to arrest Lotter and Nissen for rape before they murdered Teena is now the subject of a wrongful-death lawsuit.

The film is the first feature-length documentary produced and directed by lesbians Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir, of New York, who spent four years interviewing the principals in the case. The film has won a number of awards, including Best Documentary Film at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998.

-Michelle Tomko

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voice is completely smooth from top to bottom. I hear absolutely no strain, no indication that his voice is doing anything other than what it was naturally intended to do. If you didn't know this was the voice of a countertenor, you could easily think it was a woman's.

This, David Daniels' second solo album, is mostly devoted to countertenor arias by Gluck, Handel and Mozart. Often the music and lyrics convey pain, suffering, sorrow and loss. There are lots of cruel people, some anger, and lots of reasons for florid runs and heartfelt utterances. While Daniels' tone does not vary a great deal, it is perfectly suited to the more tender utterances. Gluck's "Che puro ciel" from Orfeo ed Euridice is especially touching.

It is undoubtedly unfair to compare Daniels' performances to those of women known for this repertoire. Yet I can not avoid thinking of others performing the same mu-

sic. Nor could a friend who brought over a recording of the wondrous Marilyn Horne butching it up in a Handel aria in order to demonstrate the dramatic force he felt lacking in Daniel's interpretation of it.

Take Daniel's performance of Gluck's famous "Che faro senza Euridice?" sung in the composer's rarely-heard original version for countertenor. As lovely as it is, it will never supplant in my head renditions by the incomparable soprano Maria Callas and contralto Kathleen Ferrier (her live versions, not the studio recording) of Gluck's later arrangements of this aria. Such reservation aside, if you're drawn to this repertoire, your life will be all the richer for having heard it sung by David Daniels.

Jason Serinus is a freelance writer living in Oakland, California.

A rare story of living under fire, with love and humor

An Underground Life

Memoirs of a Gay Jew

in Nazi Berlin

by Gad Beck

Univ. of Wisconsin, $24.95 hardcover

Reviewed by Michelle Tomko

Take what you learned in school about the Holocaust, and add it to what you know about gay persecution, and you have the kind of pressure that Gad Beck, a gay Jew who survived the Holocaust as an activist in Berlin, lived under.

Beck started out with a pretty normal life in Europe. He had two parents and a twin sister. His father ran his own business. The fact that he and his sister Margot were mischlings, meaning they were halfJewish and half-Christian, didn't really mean much, until the Nazis came to power. Then Beck embraced his Jewish culture, and was a huge player in the underground movement. All of this was happening when he was exploring the fact that he was gay. That a gay man survived the Holocaust is lucky. That a Jew survived is amazing. That a gay Jew living in Berlin and running an activist Zionist group during the war lived to tell about it is next to impossible. But it happened.

Beck's autobiographical book chronicles his life from birth. It gives sensitive accounts of walking into the clothing shop where he was an apprentice after Reichskristallnacht (the night of broken glass), the perils of hiding other Jews in apartments around the city, and the dangers of running Chug Chaluzi, a resistance group that provided food, clothing, housing, false identification and escape plans to Jews and mischlings.

But the most interesting thing about this book is that the Nazis are portrayed as individual people, not as a big war machine. There is no stereotyping of the Germans. Beck enlists the help of non-Jews all the time during his underground adventures.

This is the basis of one of the most moving passages in the book. Beck's first love was a boy named Manfred Lewin. When he and his Jewish family are taken to an internment camp, Beck's only hope is Lewin's German boss, Herr Rotholz. Rotholz allows Beck to borrow his son's Hitler Youth uniform to go to the camp and demand Lewin's release. Amazingly, the plan works. But, as the two lovers are exiting the camp, Lewin refuses to part with his family. He leaves Beck standing alone in the middle of the street, wearing a uniform that is three sizes too big.

"In those seconds, watching him go, I grew up," Beck says in the book. This event made him decide to fight the Nazis.

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Beck manages to live a pretty out, fun existence under the circumstances. He still has a social life and still managed to explore his sexuality. And trust me, this Anne Frank had more than one Peter.

Beck had relationships with an Italian that he met at a work camp who did not speak any German; a hunchback who got kicked out of the Hitler Youth because of his disability and later helped the underground efforts; his boss who let him hide in his dockside offices; and one of his uncles, just to name a few.

No matter how grueling the circumstances, Beck never seems to lose his lust for life. He keeps his integrity, wit and sense of humor even in the face of the Nazis.

Beck attributes his love of life to being a stillborn at birth but rallying to breathe. Whatever the motivation, every one of us can learn something from this man's attitude.

The downside of the book is that it isn't that easy to read. Allison Brown's translation is a bit chewy and hard to get through. Beck himselfuses so many names and places that you often must reread passages before you can continue.

That said, this is a rare book. Especially in a time where gays are being excluded from Holocaust museums, it is important to give attention to writers like this.

You will enjoy meeting Gad Beck through his book. He has led an exceptional life and truly is an exceptional human being.