‘Hidden Voices’ Puts Often-Ignored Queer Identities of Famous Composers Center Stage

Hidden Voices: Queer Artists in Exchangewhich mixes musical and literary performance to put the spotlight on “the all too often hidden voices of queer composers Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Ethel Smyth, Francis Poulenc, and Benjamin Britten,” is coming to London.

“The queer identities and love lives of these musical geniuses have mostly been overlooked or deliberately concealed by society, and also by the classical music scene,” the creative team highlights. “This program aims to make carefully selected works and personal letters audible and tangible, providing insight, context, and contrast, thus honoring the artists’ identities and stories.”

The performance uses songs from the famous composers, sung by mezzo-soprano Neelam Brader, accompanied by pianist Judith Valerie Engel, along with excerpts from their letters and writings to friends and lovers, staged by actor Simon Christian.

The goal is to “dive into their emotional worlds, unveiling intimate thoughts and confrontations with the constraints of their time” to highlight the famous names’ vulnerability and resilience.

Hidden Voices will stage its UK premiere at the Space Theater in London, as part of the Voila! Theater Festival, after a summer performance in Vienna, Austria as part of the Kultursommer Wien.

The show, performed in London on Nov. 13 and 14, was developed by the Austrian duo of Brader and Christian, who form the collective QVIA (Queer Voices in Art), with the help of Austrian concert pianist and academic Judith Valerie Engel.

“We all know their names, we know their music, but so little is known about the queer lives they lived,” reads a synopsis of Hidden Voices on the Space website. “Who was the man on Britten’s side? What was really going on at the ‘Schubertiaden’? To whom did Chopin dedicate one of his famous waltzes? Was Tchaikovsky really in love with his nephew? Who broke Francis Poulenc’s heart? How did the fierce lesbian Ethel Smyth make her mark in this male-dominated world? Hidden Voices answers all these questions and gives you a rare insight into the hidden (love) lives of these celebrated musical geniuses.”