This concert is such a drag

This concert is such a drag

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

May 28, 2023

From the Toronto Symphony Orchestra:

This June, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) proudly teams up with Pride Toronto to celebrate and embrace the vibrant, diverse, and audacious spirit of our city’s 2SLGBTQ+ community. The TSO’s first-ever drag headliner, and “Queen of Classical Music”, Thorgy Thor, will perform live with the Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall for a one-night-only, trailblazing concert.

Comments

  • Clem says:

    Queen of classical music? Ridiculous. Florence Foster Jenkins still rules.

  • Richard Cheese says:

    It’s about time. Drag should play an important role in classical music going forward. For all the bigots who will complain: be better.

    • Mecky Messer says:

      100% for giving LGBTQ more visibility.

      Let’s not kid ourselves though, its 0.000001% actual social justice, and 99.999999% simply jumping at anything that would give them clicks in social media or a handful of more ticket sales.

      Classical music literally has no place in modern society, if not they would not be so desperate trying to find one….

    • Sue Sonata Form says:

      You mean in the sense that you have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, towards something more serious!!

  • WokeMindVirus says:

    Utterly disgraceful to classical music.

    Here we have 1. One of the most supremely untalented conductors but who is hired merely because he is black and gay.

    2. A drag queen that has had a reputation on other stages for making pro pedophilic statements constant use of the f-word and otherwise actually a pretty boring act. Look up their track record.

    Drag is a repulsive corrupting sickness disguised as “art”

    Our world is truly messed up. When will this madness end.

    • Mecky Messer says:

      Lets just remind the audience that the comment above not only was not censored, it was clearly upvoted.

      Beethoven and Mozart really make you a better person…it seems.

      A certain Adolf loved those composers….seems the trend continues.

    • Shameonyou123 says:

      This comment is unforgivable. Your kind is a festering putrid cancer on the classical music scene. How dare you use your time here on this planet to spread such negative sputum. SHAME ON YOU.

    • Willym says:

      Don’t like drag? You seem very familiar with the performer in question’s act……

    • JN says:

      You don’t need a Mahlerian conductor to conduct pops shows. The requirements are different. Daniel brings great energy and fun to the shows he conducts and is very valuable to many orchestras.

  • John W. Norvis says:

    “2SLGBTQ+”? I guess the IAs aren’t welcome.

  • PaulD says:

    If a singer performed in black face or yellow face, there would be an uproar. Woman face is ok, though.

  • EagleArts says:

    Love this!!!

  • Wannaplayguitar says:

    Classical music is never fun or funny, no matter what you do with it….loud trumps from the tuba, buffoonery on bassoons…..no still not funny. Actually I make an exception for a well executed equine mating call on trombone….c’est drôle ça

    • Hugo Preuß says:

      Apparently you have never heard of PDQ Bach. Or Victor Borge. Or any number of Haydn pieces. Or a Rossini opera… The list goes on. I don’t know what this concert will be like, but it just might be a lot of fun!

  • Alphonse says:

    I’m really not sure how much more I can take. I’m not being facetious, glib, or hyperbolic. The state of the world is getting to be more than I can bear, and I’m not entirely sure what to do or say anymore, or where to turn.

    • Chill says:

      Go for a walk, if possible, and leave your phone at home.

    • Anon! A Moose! says:

      Well good thing you weren’t born in a time and place that had *actual* troubles or you wouldn’t be able to cope at all.

      I wouldn’t blink twice if this post were about Russia’s invasion, but *this* is what sets you off? Perspective. Get some.

  • Guillaume says:

    Welcome to Gomorrah…slouching to a concert hall, kids TV show, and library near you.

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

  • Sheeshamerengue123 says:

    Good lord, these purists have their heads deep in the sand. Hundreds of thousands of people come to Pride in Toronto every summer. In an age where the dying dinosaur orchestras of the world are shutting down right and left don’t you think it would be WISE to cater to enthusiastic niche communities? Or do you think your light classics subscriptions are going to be enough to pay the musicians and staff a decent wage. Climb back into your ditches and shut the hell up. Sheesh.

  • Sam's Hot Car Lot says:

    No surprise in Toronto: the wokest city on the planet.

  • JN says:

    Good for TSO and Toronto! This show was done with Symphony Nova Scotia and was great!

  • Willym says:

    The pearls are being clutched so tight that it’s cut off the blood to some brains.

  • C.James says:

    If you need any further proof that the West is in decline this is it. This is their idea of culture.

    No wonder the future of Western classical music now lies in the East!

  • Sisko24 says:

    Personally, I’m of two minds about this: 1.) Big yawn. There’s not much to see here, so please move along. 2.) So this is what the Toronto Symphony has come to? Yikes! (I’m not a Torontonian, so take my comment as you will.)

    Somehow I’m not overly alarmed nor enthusiastic about this because it does seem to me that there are larger and more numerous issues in classical music right now than the appearance of drag performers on stage with a city’s premiere symphony orchestra. Maybe we should focus on those instead?

    • Nothingham says:

      I for one could use a season without a god awful mailed-in performance of Beethoven’s 5th

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