Saturday Queer Stories and Opera

Saturday, we had two shows but they were in the late afternoon and then late evening. So we started the day out going to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Gallery Number Two (yes that’s it’s name).

It had a nice but simple collection: a single Monet, 2 Picasso’s, 1 Leger, and a smattering of interesting Scottish Art, such as the pictured sculpture by a Lithuanian born Scottish sculptor who made the image below to express his pain of the agony the Germans wrought on the Jewish community in Lithuania.

Of less interest was a installation of a modern Scottish artist that consisted of two string tied into a corner, which I am sorry I did not have the presence of mind to photograph.

After our visit we went to see a recital of opera highlights by a professor of music and his 3 students.

When we arrived, I was surprised to find Eli extremely ill at easy at the venue. Not only because he was the youngest person in attendance, but it was his first time in a “operational church.” I had to inform him that all the churches he visited in Italy were ‘operational.” But this was one with a modern interior and looked very christian and I could see why it made him uneasy. As the audience filled in it was even coming close that I would be among the younger members of the audience.

Once the concert began, Eli was completely enchanted with the singing and indeed the music. It was nice varied program including, Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, Strauss, Mussorgsky and ending with Verdi. The young singers had surprisingly fine voices. The teacher also used the moment to sing a piece he never professionally sang before but always wanted to: the death scene of Boris Godunov. And while George London has northing to worry about the recital was delightful if semi-professional.

After dinner, we went to a session of Queer Storytelling. This session consisted of 2 parts of 3 storytellers, all professional Queer artists. They were peppered with what the presenter called “microstories” which were short stories told to the moderator. The audience was invited to write their own on pieces of paper and some would be chosen to be read to the public.

The moderator was a producer with the BBC but also the creator of these Queer Storytelling sessions which happened every two weeks throughout the year. The stories were really quite a lovely mixture of funny, poignant ad moving sometimes to the point of tears. At the break, Eli and I separately decided to write a story. In the second part, one of the story tellers was a gay folksinger he sang a beautiful song he had written to his ex-lover to explain why he broke up by describing his boyfriend’s insensitive behavior. The boyfriend apparently thought the song was not about him, so he followed it up with a second song entitled, “Yes, you now its about you.”

It was very surprising that the moderator picked both of our stories to read. He first read Eli’s story which was very moving and the audience applauded very much. He wrote this:

“When I came out as trans, I thought i was lucky as I had a gay dad who I was sure would accept me. Much to my surprise he didn’t. My other dad, who is with me here today, did come to accept me and he got a divorce. Then he took me here to my first Fringe Festival and to this one of the first open LGBT events I have ever been to.”

The moderator was moved to tears and added, “And you are always welcome here among your tribe.”

Walking home we passed Edinburgh Castle and heard the Edinburgh Tattoo playing and it was not our cup of tea, though the castle was picturesque to look at.