Current Affairs Gay pride in Prague's Rudolfinum
The 150-member Boston Gay Men's Chorus is one of New England's largest and most successful choirs. It has broken ground in affirming the positive image of the gay community in the United States, and is now on a tour of Europe. After highly successful concerts in Berlin and then Wroclaw in Poland, the chorus is now in Prague, where they will be singing in one of city's great concert venues. In Catholic Poland their concert was preceded by noisy anti-gay protests, so when he met up with the chorus's executive director, Steven Smith, Radio Prague's David Vaughan asked how they had been received so far in the Czech capital.
Steven Smith
"Absolutely great. I mean people are so friendly, very positive about
our being here. We knew coming to Prague would be a great experience for
the chorus. It's stunningly gorgeous. I'd only seen Prague through
pictures and it really is the storybook that everyone says it is."
But I gather that it's not pure coincidence that you're here in Prague just as the Czech parliament is discussing - I think for the third or fourth time - the possibility of introducing gay and lesbian marriage or registered partnership. Are you engaging in that debate here in the Czech Republic?
Boston Gay Men's Chorus, photo: www.bgmc.org
"Yes, certainly. We'll be singing several songs about that. As you
may know, in Massachusetts a year ago this spring, gay and lesbian
marriage became legal. More than 23 of our members have already married.
Many have been in long-term relationships but finally got married. And
we've been very active in the fight in the States. We're working with the
group here in the Czech Republic, called Gay Initiative, and we're really
glad to lend our voices of support to help people understand why gay and
lesbian partnership and marriage is really great for gay and lesbian
people and for society as a whole."
And you're going to be singing in one of the great Czech venues. It's the Dvorak Hall of the Rudolfinum, which is really the great concert venue of Prague. Are you nervous?
"I'm not nervous, but really excited. The whole tour began five years ago and the place we knew we wanted to go first was here to Prague to sing in the Rudolfinum. Certainly its reputation is international. So that really got the thing started. So it's the great finale to the trip."
Boston Gay Men's Chorus, photo: www.bgmc.org
And what are you going to be singing?
"As always, we sing a great variety of music, from classical to popular music. So you'll get that with us. There are Copland 'Old American Songs', we're doing a newly commissioned work about gay and lesbian marriage, called 'A More Perfect Union'. It wouldn't be us without some show tunes, a lot of Gershwin and music about gay and lesbian pride."
