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Opera’s Lesbian Divas

Opera has a tremendous gay following, and the amalgamation of creative arts that it requires – music, theater, dance and design – attracts many gay artists. But the advent of openly gay opera singers remains rare. This makes Patricia Racette and Beth Clayton all the more trailblazing: Not only are these renowned singers both out and proud, but their 10-year relationship is public as well.

I had the opportunity to sit with them in their New York City apartment to discuss their careers in opera, their relationship, and how they keep it all together. Their apartment is modern but modest. The friskiest member of this household is their dog, Sappho. They referred to her several times as their “daughter” and, when she took a liking to me, Racette pointed out with great irony that “she loves men.”

The couple considers New York their second home after Santa Fe, N.M., where they are building a new house they’ve designed together. But Racette is originally from a very different environment: Manchester, N.H.

It wasn’t until just before college that she actually began voice lessons, with an eye (or ear) on jazz. It was her voice teacher who suggested that she was well-suited to life on the high C’s. “I was devastated,” she recalled. “My teacher said, ‘I really think the classical genre is going to be for you’ … and I was like, ‘Oh, no!'” But she grew to love opera in college, and a star was born.

Clayton, on the other hand, grew up doing plenty of singing; her father is a Methodist minister. She fell in love with opera after a summer at Tanglewood.

Both of the singers had been out personally before they met. “It was a gradual thing for me,” said Racette. “It was in college. But I’ve never spent too much energy being closeted.”

Clayton came out to her family in college: “I fell in love with a woman for the first time and that kinda shook things up a little bit. I went to SMU in Dallas, and I fell in love with another long-haired woman so it was a little bit ‘ahh!’ A little interesting for everybody, including me. But it was not a phase, as my family perhaps thought at the time.”

Then came a fateful 1997 production of Verdi’s La Traviata in Santa Fe. The two met at a party before the production began. “It was pretty clear that there was a lot of energy there,” Racette remembered. “And then we got together in the summer and we started our staging, and it was lots of fireworks. It was pretty palpable. It was just a matter of time – let’s put it that way.”

Racette was playing the heroine, Violetta, and Clayton her best friend, Flora. Normally Violetta falls in love with the handsome Alfredo, but this was probably the first time she fell for Flora instead.

In Act II, during a scene where Violetta faints at Flora’s home, Racette recalled an “illegal kiss”: “I was on the floor with Beth and, per the staging, she comes in and scoops me up. But she leaned over and just plants one on me! I had to turn my entire body into her because I couldn’t stop laughing when I was supposed to be passed out!”

Despite these high jinks, Racette received great notice for her portrayal of the amorous Violetta. “Falling in love will do that to a girl,” she quipped.

Racette (left) and Clayton

Since then their careers have taken off, and often take them in different directions. For Racette, high points have included the lead in Emmeline – a world premiere – and her first performance at America’s leading house, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in 1995. “My Met debut was really a magical evening – this was pre-Beth, mind you! – but I was so excited,” Racette recalled. “Everything was right, the audience was great, and I had such a cross-section of my life attending.”

More recently, Racette has received great notice for her searing portrayal of Madama Butterfly. Although often portrayed as a victim, Racette brings new strength to this classic character.

“I love her journey,” she said. “There is a complexity of that character. If you were that person – and that’s how I approach any role, really putting myself into that situation – this is someone that has nothing. Who has not heard from her husband for three years. Has had his child. The amount of strength and patience and the ability to hang on to that hope, I don’t know that I could do that. She does, and that’s what makes it heartbreaking.”

As a mezzo-soprano (a lower voice than soprano), Clayton sings a different range of roles, but a wide variety of them – from the fiery lead of Carmen to the upcoming world premiere of an opera based on The Fly. She often sings “pants roles,” a young male character portrayed by a woman. “I love playing boys,” she said. “It’s just interesting to personify something completely different than yourself.”

Clayton in the Opéra de Marseille production of Giulio Cesare

Racette once did a pants role as well, but her curvaceous figure didn’t fit the part – literally. “We don’t ever want that to happen again,” said Clayton. “It was Eddie Munster with implants.”

It is clear to even the casual observer that these women are very much in love. They gaze at one another, they touch, and they finish each other’s sentences. Before Racette finishes a sneeze, Clayton already has a tissue ready for her. But although they do sing together on occasion, this is rare.

The subject of coordinating their schedules naturally led to the question of how they maintain their relationship despite globe-trotting careers. “We call it ‘wifing,'” Clayton pointed out. Wifing is the role that one of them plays when the other is onstage. “Our real home is in New Mexico, but the truth of it is that going home is going where Pat is. So I’m happy wherever she’s singing.”

Racette concurred: “I have this summer off, and I would love nothing more than for us to be in Santa Fe for a big chunk of time. But Beth is working, so I’m going to go where Beth is. And I think that’s a hardship because sometimes you just want to be home. But there’s no way I’m going to do that and be away from Beth.”

“We have to force ourselves to sit down and look at the next six months,” Clayton continued, “and where’s the dog going to be – what’s the best situation for ‘the child‘? – so we base it on that and go from there.”

Racette with the couple’s dog, Sappho

Clayton and Racette came out professionally when Racette was the subject of a cover article in Opera News in 2002. The article didn’t focus on her homosexuality, but it was simply included in a very matter-of-fact fashion. “It wasn’t about that,” Racette said. “Here’s an article about me, and this is my life, and there’s my partner.”

“It was just the normal questions you would ask anyone,” continued Clayton. “Do you leave your family in or out? Do you leave your personal life in or out? And in the last 10, 15, 20 years in our business, it becomes quite obvious who’s not answering those questions … obviously we’re not the only lesbians in opera, but we’re the only lesbians who are both singing in a visible way.

“And people would say, ‘Did you get backlash on that?’ And honestly, no. Of course, we’d be the last people to hear that. But the positive side is that, any of us who is gay or lesbian says, ‘If I help that one person

“Well, we’ve gotten so many of those one-person responses of appreciation. I wish I could volunteer at the Center or do something on a regular basis, but because of our travel schedules I feel like the best thing we can offer is our honesty, our example and our being vocal about it when and if we can.”

While they feel that homophobia has not been a significant problem in their careers, they both agree that old-fashioned sexism is “alive and well.” “I can always tell,” Racette said. “You can smell it when there’s a director that, you have something to say but if the guy has something to say … I have so little patience for that I usually just end up becoming kind of belligerent. And I’ll be heard one way or another.”

Racette and Clayton held a commitment ceremony in 2005. “The cool thing is that our families had never met,” noted Clayton. “Not for any bad reason, just logistic. And what was really cute was Pat’s brother and my sister have children, and our two nieces are only six weeks apart and they were calling each other cousins by day one. We had a reception, and we had a beautiful dinner, and my parents paid for it; that was not our plan, but they sort of came through in that Southern tradition. It was very affirming and validating.

Racette interjected with great irony: “And we had no singing! Not a word!”

Racette and Clayton at their commitment ceremony

Instead of a traditional honeymoon, the couple went immediately to New York to sing at a Pride event; it also happened to be Racette’s 40th birthday. “It was really cool to do it,” said Racette, “because not only was it my birthday, but it was also really reaffirming.”

Clayton said simultaneously with great excitement: “We announced that we had just gotten married and the audience went crazy, and we wore the outfits that we wore for the ceremony, so we were coming full circle.”

A few days later, Racette’s performance at the Met would be simulcast live to movie theaters around the world. She is pleased that new programs such as this one are bringing opera to new audiences. “Don’t be intimidated by the way opera is seen in this country,” she advised, “that is has an elitist quality to it, or that it’s not accessible, or that you can’t understand it. There are titles now, so there’s no reason why anyone cannot understand and appreciate it. And it’s such a rich art form, it has so many aspects and disciplines involved in making that evening happen. So it’s really remarkable.”

Clayton’s advice for newcomers? “It’ll be a kick. Maybe go see something that’s considered traditional so that you understand – or not understand, but so that you can just allow yourself to just experience it. Just go in and prepare to be surprised. Prepare to be moved. That’s not something that’s going to happen to you in your life as you walk through Monday to Friday and do your job.”

Clayton continued: “I meet people all the time who’ve never been to one, and I just say you’ve just got to go. Just so you can say in your lifetime, you’ve experienced it. If you hate it, that’s totally fine. If you love it, or if you want to explore a little bit more, that’s great – but I think it’s only going to make your life a little bit better.”

Clayton in the New York City Opera’s production of Carmen

Racette in the Santa Fe Opera’s production of Katya Kabanova

As the interview drew to a close, I asked them one last, burning question that every lesbian must know: Do they watch The L Word? I was greeted by a knowing chorus of hoots and hollers: “Oh, please!” “Bring it on!” “I’m all about Jennifer Beals!” “On Demand! Are you kidding me?” “We’re just sick that next season is going to be the last … what are we lesbians supposed to do?”

These down-to-earth divas have even volunteered to do a cameo on the show. Are you listening, Ilene Chaiken?

For more on Beth Clayton, visit her website. For more on Patricia Racette, visit her website.

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