Duncan Fallowell

Why are musicologists so indifferent to their subjects’ love lives?

Francis Poulenc’s latest biographer focuses entirely on his compositions, ignoring the homosexuality that was fundamental to his being

Portrait of Poulenc by Jacques-Emile Blanche [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 02 May 2020

People often say that the battle for male gay rights has been won, at least in the West, and that may be true. But the drag of the past is still great, and I can think of only two major works between classical and recent times that celebrate same-sex love openly: Shakespeare’s sonnets and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

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