There is no time to shake hands. The door of Splendor swings open and Michael Gieler, artistic director of the IJ-Salon chamber music series, immediately runs back to his rehearsing musicians. Don José (tenor Mitch Raemaekers) has just poured his heart out to Carmen (countertenor Maayan Licht) in Bizet’s flower aria, ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’. A large group of drag queens and drag kings watch the doomed love duo from the floor and the edge of the room. Lumberjack blouse, pleated skirt in tartan, flowy red dress, oversized epaulettes: they are already decked out in red, the color with which Bizet’s hit opera from 1875 is inextricably linked.
The tail end of the penultimate rehearsal is being heard in the Amsterdam musical sanctuary Carmen – The Hopelezz Edition, can be heard on Saturday afternoon in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. The performance is a co-production of the IJ-Salon and two Amsterdam drag houses: House of Hopelezz (for drag queens) and House of Løstbois (for drag kings). The idea for the collaboration came from pianist Vivianne Cheng, who is involved in the project as a curator. She has performed twice before with Amsterdam drag performers. “For them, drag is not only a performance, but also a medium to stand up for human rights issues. I found that inspiring,” says Cheng on the phone in the morning.
Rebel
They looked for composers who thematically matched the combination of classical music and drag. The choice fell on the Amsterdam pianist and composer Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952), who had relationships with both men and women. If I die, they can Carmen on my grave, she once wrote. Cheng: “She apparently felt very close to Carmen as an opera personality. Bosmans always remained true to herself and rebelled against the traditional norms of her time. She also found that in Carmen.” Opera fragments will be played on Saturday Carmenin addition to music by Bosmans himself and Benjamin Britten, with whom she corresponded.
A bag of crunchy peanuts goes around in Splendor’s attic. A large red-haired wig is carefully trimmed and disappears back into a backpack. Drag mother Taka Taka, creative director of the Amsterdam gay club Club ChUrch, gives the members of House of Hopelezz and House of Løstbois some direction changes. “You are a big group. Be aware of how you move across the stage. Do you use 360° vision.” While changing clothes, Taka Taka emphasizes that this combination of classical music and drag performance is one based on equality. “See drag as an art form on the same level as other art forms. We don’t want to take their place, but to create a dialogue: how can we grow together on stage?”
Bullfighter costume
Below, countertenor Maayan Licht is still bouncing from rehearsal. “I’ll rest when I’m dead,” he says theatrically. “Look, I found this jacket in a second-hand shop in Vienna.” He shows a photo of his Carmen costume. No dress, but black leather trousers decorated with bright red fabric flowers at the trim, and a short black jacket decorated with glitter and loops, reminiscent of a bullfighter costume. “It’s still completely new, like couture,” beams Licht.
As a countertenor, Licht specializes in baroque music. Bizet’s thoroughly romantic music is far outside his normal field of work. “But I thought, cool, let’s do it! And when I started studying it, I immediately fell in love. The music suits my voice well. And the drag performers, I love themwe really bonded.”
Moving
This rehearsal day, in which instrumentalists, singers and drag queens came together for the first time, went at a breakneck pace. “It is very intense,” says artistic director Michael Gieler when everyone has gone home. It’s past ten thirty. “You see a lot of people in a short time. I actually haven’t been sleeping well for days. The preparations, the adrenaline…”
With the IJ-Salon, Gieler, who is also a solo violist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, has been bridging the gap between classical music and other art disciplines for eighteen years. “It is moving to meet people who do something completely different from us classical musicians. Normally everyone lives in their own bubble, but because we often create crossovers with other disciplines in our concerts, we come into contact with people we would otherwise never meet.” His main goal is “to make a cool show that people will take home with them.” What is that this time? Gieler is silent for a moment, searching for words. “A loving sensation of another.”