NICOLE V. GAGNÉ

This program, first broadcast on March 16, 2025, surveys different expressions of male-to-female gender variance: male soprano Samuel Mariño singing George Frideric Handel; purely instrumental evocations from Camille Saint-Saëns and Harry Partch; and passionate works for voice and instruments by Francis Poulenc, Benjamin Britten, John Zorn, and Anne LeBaron.

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Act 3, “Da tempeste” (1724)

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS

Le rouet d’Omphale (1871)

FRANCIS POULENC

Les mamelles de Tirésias, Prologue and Act 1 (1944)

HARRY PARTCH

The Bewitched, Scene 5, “Visions Fill the Eyes of a Defeated Basketball Team in the Shower Room” (1955)

BENJAMIN BRITTEN

Curlew River (1964) [excerpt]

JOHN ZORN

Six Litanies for Heliogabalus, Litanies II, IV, V, and VI (2007)

ANNE LEBARON

Crescent City, Scene 4, “Deadly Belle’s First Turn” (2012)

Link to:

Music: KALW Radio Shows, 2024–2025

For more on these composers, see:

Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition

More Cool Sites To Visit! – Music

For more on gender, see:

Other Writings: Essay – “A Working Model of Gender”

Music: KALW Radio Show #6, Gender Variance in Western Music, part 2: Female-to-Male Representations

For more on George Frideric Handel, Anne LeBaron, and Francis Poulenc, see:

Music: KALW Radio Show #6, Gender Variance in Western Music, part 2: Female-to-Male Representations

For more on Anne LeBaron, see:

Music: KALW Radio Show #1, A Few of My Favorite Things…

Music: KALW Radio Show #4, Women’s History Month

Music: SFCR Radio Show #6, Postmodernism, part 3: Three Contemporary Masters

For more on Anne LeBaron and Harry Partch, see:

Music Essay: Anne LeBaron, Hyperopera, and Crescent City: Some Historical Perspectives

For more on Anne LeBaron and John Zorn, see:

Music Book: Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers

For more on Harry Partch, see:

Music Essay: The Beaten Path: A History of American Percussion Music

Music Essay: The Built Environment in American Music

Music: SFCR Radio Show #4, Postmodernism, part 1: Three Founders

Music: SFCR Radio Show #8, Daoism in Western Music, part 1

For more on John Zorn, see:

Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music

Music: SFCR Radio Show #7, Postmodernism, part 4: Three Contemporary Masters