This program, first broadcast on April 6, 2025, surveys different expressions of female-to-male gender variance: women singing male roles in the operas of George Frideric Handel, Richard Strauss, and Ralph Vaughan Williams; opera celebrating gender reversals by Francis Poulenc; female-to-male-themed songs for voice and instruments by Sussan Deyhim and Anne LeBaron; and instrumental music by Pauline Oliveros for a re-gendered production of King Lear.
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Julius Caesar in Egypt, Act 3, “See in spate the high cataract storming” (1724)
RICHARD STRAUSS
Ariadne auf Naxos, Prologue (1916)
FRANCIS POULENC
Les mamelles de Tirésias, Entr’acte and Act 2 (1944)
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
The Pilgrim’s Progress, Act IV, Scene 2 (1951)
SUSSAN DEYHIM
“I’m a Man” (1986)
PAULINE OLIVEROS
Crone Music, “Lear On The Road” (1989)
ANNE LEBARON
Pope Joan, “Sestina of Visions” (2000)
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 #5, Gender Variance in Western Music, part 1: Male-to-Female Representations
For more on Sussan Deyhim and Pauline Oliveros, see:
For more on Sussan Deyhim, Anne LeBaron, and Richard Strauss, see:
Music: KALW Radio Show #1, A Few of My Favorite Things…
For more on George Frideric Handel, Anne LeBaron, and Francis Poulenc, see:
Music: KALW Radio Show #5, Gender Variance in Western Music, part 1: Male-to-Female Representations
For more on Anne LeBaron, see:
Music Essay: Anne LeBaron, Hyperopera, and Crescent City: Some Historical Perspectives
Music: SFCR Radio Show #6, Postmodernism, part 3: Three Contemporary Masters
For more on Anne LeBaron and Pauline Oliveros, see:
Music Book: Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers
Music: KALW Radio Show #4, Women’s History Month
For more on Pauline Oliveros, see:
Film Review: Prism’s Colors, The Mechanics of Time
Music Lecture: The Secret of 20th-Century American Music
Music: KALW Radio Show #7, In Tribute
Music: SFCR Radio Show #5, Minimalism
Music: SFCR Radio Show #17, A Tribute to Pauline Oliveros
For more on Richard Strauss, see:
Music Essay: Some Thoughts Toward an Appreciation of Richard Strauss
For more on Ralph Vaughan Williams, see:
Music: SFCR Radio Show #11, Two Symphonies from 1934
Music: SFCR Radio Show #22, Neo-Classicism, part 3
NICOLE V. GAGNÉ 