At the funeral of Dinah, the matriarch of a dysfunctional American family, her widowed husband Sam tries to reconcile with his two estranged children: his daughter Dede and his gay, schizophrenic son Junior. The drama that unfolds in the aftermath of the funeral exposes raw wounds and secrets, particularly the fact that Dede is now married to François, who is also Junior's ex-boyfriend. As the family attempts to deal with their pain and communicate after decades of bitterness, the opera weaves in a flashback of Bernstein's earlier work, Trouble in Tahiti, to reveal the origins of their unhappiness. The work ultimately ends on a fragile note of hope for reconciliation

The opera condenses Tony Kushner’s epic two-part play. It focuses on the intertwined stories of two couples living in 1980s New York City amid the AIDS crisis: Prior Walter and Louis Ironson, a gay couple, and Harper and Joe Pitt, a Mormon couple. After Prior is diagnosed with AIDS, Louis abandons him. Harper is addicted to Valium, and Joe, a closeted gay man and Roy Cohn’s protégé, begins a relationship with Louis. Prior has visions of an Angel who declares him a prophet. The story culminates with Prior rejecting the angel’s call, asking only for “more life,” and ends five years later with a moment of reconciliation at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.

On a British warship during the Napoleonic wars, the handsome and innocent young sailor Billy Budd is adored by his crewmates. The jealous master-at-arms, Claggart, falsely accuses him of mutiny. Billy, unable to speak due to a stammer, strikes Claggart dead and is sentenced to hang. The opera explores homoerotic desire and innocence destroyed.

Set in a Washington, D.C. military hospital near the end of the American Civil War, the opera offers a fictionalized account of Walt Whitman's time as a volunteer nurse. As he tends to the wounded, Whitman strikes up a friendship with a volatile young soldier, John Wormley. Their relationship deepens and becomes physically intimate, leading Whitman to question his identity and motivations. Unbeknownst to Whitman, Wormley is a Confederate soldier, and his betrayal leads to tragic consequences

Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous writer, travels to Venice seeking artistic inspiration. There he becomes obsessed with a beautiful Polish boy, Tadzio. The obsession consumes him as cholera spreads in the city, leading to his death.

A married theatre director, Enrique, is preparing a production of Romeo and Juliet but is haunted by visions of his former male lover, Gonzalo. Gonzalo urges him to abandon social conventions and stage the “theater under the sand” – a raw, truthful art that exposes hidden desires. When Enrique finally casts a boy as Juliet, the public’s reaction turns so violent that it sparks a revolution. The opera is a surrealist, openly homosexual cry against bourgeois hypocrisy and a plea for artistic and sexual freedom.

A six-song cycle exploring various facets of the gay experience, from joy and pride to mourning and loss. The songs were inspired by the composer's experience at a retreat at the Body Electric School and set texts from various gay poets. The cycle moves from the exuberance of a safe environment in "Ode to Wildwood" and the spiritual eroticism of "In the Temple," through the playful "Personals Ad" and the ambivalent celebration of "After the Big Parade," to the profound grief of "Here" (a eulogy for the composer's partner who died of AIDS) and the extended farewell of "Memory Unsettled."

The opera tells the life story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, from his 40th birthday to his assassination in 1978. It includes his relationship with his partner Scott Smith and his political activism.

Set in 1990s Los Angeles before and after a devastating earthquake, the "songplay" follows seven young Angelenos whose lives intersect after a policeman (Mike) arrests a former gang leader. Their stories—encompassing romance, a criminal trial, and social struggle—unfold until the earthquake forces a moment of personal reckoning

The story is set in a luxurious brothel, "Le Grand Balcon," where clients pay to act out their fantasies of power. The line between roleplay and reality blurs as a revolution rages outside. Madam Irma and her prostitutes become the new figures of authority, eventually taking on the very roles their clients were simulating

In Mao’s China, French diplomat René Gallimard falls under the spell of a captivating Peking opera singer named Song Liling. Gallimard begins to fantasize that he is Pinkerton, the American lieutenant from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, projecting his Orientalist fantasies of submissive Asian women onto the singer. The two begin a passionate affair that lasts twenty years, until they are arrested. In court, it is revealed that Song was not only a man in drag, but also a Chinese spy who passed on information about the war in Vietnam. The opera turns gender conventions and cultural power relations upside down

The play is a dark satirical comedy set in a high-tech gay club called the "Coup de Grace," which stages elaborate, fantasy death scenes for its members—men who are living with HIV/AIDS. The protagonist, Richard, a man recently diagnosed with AIDS, is offered a defiant and stylish alternative to a slow, impersonal death, though the satire ultimately challenges the audience to consider the crisis's underlying causes

A seven-song cycle that paints a "panoramic 'fan' of songs", with texts spanning themes from a direct poetic 'wallop' to elegiac loss and urbane humor. It includes a vivid portrait of Africa based on a prison letter and concludes with a surrealistic, humorous poem about New York

The opera chronicles the life of Oscar Wilde, focusing on his love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, the legal battles with the Marquess of Queensberry, his imprisonment for "gross indecency," and his final years.

The one-act opera is set in a gay nightclub "somewhere in England" and centers on Val, a long-suffering lavatory attendant who serves as a confidante and mother figure to the club's patrons. Val is trapped in the club's hedonistic underworld by her memories, while the drag queen Anna Fewmore presides over the cabaret performances. The drama unfolds when Nathan, a tormented young man with a blade in his pocket, arrives seeking answers about his absent mother. He begins a relationship with Matthew, a hopeful hedonist. The story explores themes of pleasure as an escape from reality, rejection, and reconciliation, building to a tragic conclusion.

The story follows a diverse group of fictional characters as their lives collide at the Stonewall Inn on a hot night in June 1969. Part I explores the life of each character in the hours leading up to the riot, establishing the oppressive atmosphere of 1960s New York. Part II sees the police raid the club, which the patrons initially endure but then revolt against after being pushed too far. Part III takes place the morning after, as the characters, aware that something momentous has occurred, await the new dawn

The opera intertwines a single day in the lives of three women from different eras: book editor Clarissa Vaughan in 1999 New York, novelist Virginia Woolf in 1923 England, and housewife Laura Brown in 1949 Los Angeles. Their stories are connected through Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. Clarissa prepares a party for her close friend Richard, a writer dying of AIDS. Laura, feeling stifled by domesticity, contemplates suicide while reading Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia, struggling with mental illness, begins writing the novel while also battling suicidal thoughts. The stories culminate with Richard's suicide, Laura's eventual abandonment of her family years later, and the three women acknowledging their connection across time

Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man, wishes that his portrait would age instead of him. He indulges in a hedonistic and corrupt life, influencing and destroying others. The novel's homoerotic subtext is made explicit in the opera, with Dorian's relationships with Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton.

A famous stage actress, Madeline Mitchell, and her two adult children, Charlie and Bea, struggle to connect across three decades: 1986, 1996, and 2006. The drama unfolds over three Christmases, as family secrets are revealed. Charlie is in a relationship with his partner Burt, who is dying of AIDS, and feels his mother is distant because he is gay. Bea, trapped in an unhappy marriage, seeks comfort in alcohol. Over the years, they grapple with their mother’s career-driven neglect, the truth about their father’s suicide, and ultimately, a fragile reconciliation

A song cycle with a homoerotic theme, reflecting the composer's innermost feelings. It consists of eight songs set to poems by the Afrikaans poet I.D. du Plessis

The opera follows the teenage Gaius (the young Julius Caesar) on his journey of self-discovery. Sent to the court of Bithynia as an emissary to secure ships from King Nicomedes, he is swept up in a passionate, sexual relationship with the older king. The narrative also covers his first fiancée Cossutia and his flight from Rome to escape the wrath of the dictator Sulla. Rather than focusing on tragedy, the opera is a celebration of life and of embracing one's true identity.

A 20-25 minute chamber opera for two voices set in Troy after Patroclus' death. Through flashes of intimate memories, Achilles remembers his life with the love he lost in this achingly beautiful, unabashedly queer new work.

The god Apollo falls in love with the beautiful Spartan youth Hyacinthus. The mortal Zephyrus, also in love with Hyacinthus, becomes jealous. When Apollo throws a discus, Zephyrus diverts it to strike and kill Hyacinthus. In Ovid’s version, Apollo turns the dying youth into the hyacinth flower. However, the libretto by Rufinus Widl adds female characters (Melia, sister of Hyacinthus, and Oebalus, king) to create a heterosexual subplot: Melia and Apollo end up together, and Hyacinthus is resurrected, softening the homoerotic tragedy.

In the summer of 1963, two young men—ranch hand Ennis del Mar and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist—meet while working as sheep herders on the fictional Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. Alone in the vast, rugged landscape, their initial friendship develops into a tender, secret love affair. After their time on the mountain, their paths diverge as they both choose to lead conventional lives, marrying and starting families. However, they cannot truly separate from each other, and over the following years, they maintain a hidden relationship while grappling with their feelings and a deeply homophobic society. The story follows their struggle to reconcile their love with societal expectations, culminating in a tragic and inevitable end

Based on a 15th‑century legend, the Czech knight Dalibor is imprisoned for leading a peasant revolt. In prison, he plays the violin so beautifully that the jailer’s sister, Milada, falls in love with him. However, the opera’s central emotional core is the intense male bonding between Dalibor and his friend (and fellow knight) Zdeněk, who tries to rescue him. Their loyalty and sacrifice for each other are portrayed with a depth that overshadows the heterosexual romance. The opera ends tragically with Dalibor’s execution.

A song about gay desire in Medieval Europe. The text tells of the protagonist’s inner conflict as he discovers his longing for another man and has to reevaluate what he has been taught by the Church.

At the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington, D.C., recent college graduate Timothy Laughlin is eager to join the crusade against communism. A chance encounter with a handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job—and his first love affair with a man. Drawn into a maelstrom of deceit, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his love for God, and his love for Fuller—an entanglement that ends in a stunning act of betrayal.

A sung-through, satirical musical about the impact of the gay dating app Grindr on modern relationships. We meet Grindr, a mythical siren and god-like figure awakened by technology, who feeds on human lust and manipulates her gay devotees. The story follows four archetypal gay men using the app: Devon, a romantic looking for love; Tom, a cynical user open to no-strings-attached fun; Jack, a hedonistic twink; and Don, a closeted, self-loathing, and married older man. As their paths cross, their storylines ultimately collide in a campy crescendo

The opera begins with Harvey Milk's assassination, interwoven with a scene of his mother warning him as a boy. As a young man, Harvey follows a man into Central Park and is arrested. On Wall Street, he grapples with his gay identity and reflects on the connection between being Jewish and gay. After witnessing the Stonewall riots, he resolves to live authentically. In the 1970s, he moves to San Francisco’s Castro district. Through flashbacks, we see his first unsuccessful campaign for city supervisor; encouraged by his partner Scott, Harvey gains confidence and cuts his hair, signaling a fresh start. After witnessing a gay-bashing incident, Milk urges the community to elect one of their own; he wins a seat on the Board of Supervisors alongside Dan White. Their relationship becomes tense, especially when Milk supports policies like a gay rights ordinance. White resigns but later returns; Milk convinces Mayor Moscone not to reappoint him, triggering White’s rage. On November 27, 1978, White assassinates Moscone and Milk. In the aftermath, a candlelight vigil commemorates Milk’s life and legacy; the opera ends symbolically with a young Harvey breaking free from handcuffs, representing the impact of his death and the progress it inspired.

Iphigenia, now a priestess in Tauris, is forced to sacrifice strangers who wash ashore. Two Greek prisoners, Orestes and Pylades, are brought to her. Unbeknownst to her, Orestes is her brother. The deep, devoted friendship between Orestes and Pylades—each willing to die for the other—drives the drama.

A retelling of Aeschylus's Oresteia set during WWII. The protagonist, Max Aue, a refined, homosexual SS officer, participates in the war's atrocities while being haunted by his past. He is coerced into service after being caught in a Berlin park, and his story includes episodes like the Babi Yar massacre and an incestuous affair with his sister Una. The Eumenides (Furies) are represented by a pair of detectives who trail him

Based on Herman Melville's novel. The opera focuses on the obsessive Captain Ahab and his quest for the white whale. Among the crew, the friendship between the narrator Greenhorn (Ishmael) and the Queequeg is depicted with deep affection, often interpreted as a romantic or queer bond.

The musical drama recounts the 1998 torture and murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, through the eyes of his best friend, Romaine Patterson. The story covers his meeting with Patterson, who is a lesbian, his social life, the attack, and his death. The narrative then follows Patterson's response, including her breaking up a protest by a fundamentalist preacher at Shepard's funeral, the trial of the killers, and her eventual activism and marriage proposal from her girlfriend, Olivia.

A 20-minute chamber work for high voice and ensemble. The piece memorializes LGBTQ teenagers who have taken their own lives due to anti-gay bullying, with a text by poet Kathryn Levy.

On the early morning of June 28, 1969, at a bar in Greenwich Village, a small group of friends—including a drag performer, his boyfriend, a reporter, and a bartender—grapple with personal decisions about living authentically while the distant sounds of the Stonewall uprising grow ever closer.

The story takes place in a hedonistic gay nightclub in an unnamed city in northern England. It centers on Val, the club's toilet attendant, who has worked there for decades and serves as a confessor to the clientele. She is much-loved but viewed as an enigma. Why is she still there? Why does she never leave? The central drama begins when a young, unpredictable man named Nathan leaves a gift for Val, setting off a wild and violent night. The story interweaves the lives of Val, the cynical drag queen Anna Fewmore, and two young patrons, Matthew (a hopeful hedonist searching for love) and Nathan (a tormented soul obsessed with tales of his absent father, who carries a blade in his pocket). The story builds to a tragic conclusion, fueled by themes of rejection, escape from reality, and a fragile possibility of reconciliation

A "lonely faggot" named Jon wishes that his faithful dog Buddy were human and his lover. Buddy's Fairy Dog Mother appears and transforms Buddy into a man. Buddy then embarks on a perilous odyssey through the gay ghetto of present-day Manhattan, navigating its subculture and stereotypes

Set in a metaphorical garden, the opera explores relationships among seven characters. Dov and Mel are a gay couple living together. Their relationship faces challenges, but they survive the opera—a rare happy ending for a gay couple in 20th-century opera.

Four short operas created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising. 1. Nightlife (TJ Rubin / Deepali Gupta): Inside the Stonewall Inn, a police raid exposes a closeted lesbian, a reclaimed slur, addiction, and a coming‑out. 2. Outside (Bryan Blaskie / Seth Christenfeld): In a bar near Stonewall on the night of Judy Garland’s funeral, police extortion and sexual abuse lead to an uprising. 3. The Pomada Inn (Brian Cavanagh‑Strong / Ben Bonnema): Two gay couples – one in 1969 New York, another in 2019 Madrid – are compared; the bar as sanctuary, safety concerns and police raids. 4. The Community (Kevin Cummines / Shoshana Greenberg): 400 years in the future, after an apocalypse, the only surviving artefact is a book about Stonewall, which has become a cult; polyamory is the norm, “queens” are sacred, dissident characters want monogamy and solitude – a queer utopia turned dystopia.

Detective Inspector Anne Strawson investigates the stabbing of a teenage boy in Manchester. The prime suspect, 16-year-old Brian, weaves a story involving online chatrooms, a beautiful girl named Rebecca, her brother Jake, a spy, and a gardener-assassin. As Anne delves deeper into the transcripts, she uncovers that all the online personas were created by Jake, who orchestrated the entire scenario, including his own death, as a desperate cry for love and to be remembered

A chamber opera in three parts that functions as an extended monologue by an unnamed American schoolteacher living in Bulgaria. Obsessed with a charismatic young hustler named Mitko, he begins a long, unstable, and ultimately destructive affair that becomes violent and forces him to spiral. The story exposes the narrator's behaviors around desire, shame, trauma, and the enduring effects of a repressed gay childhood.

The opera is told in reverse in a series of flashbacks, focusing on Margarita Xirgu, a celebrated actress, as she remembers her friendship with the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. The story begins in 1969 as Xirgu, now recalling her past, prepares for another performance. The narrative flashes back to a summer evening in 1936 Spain, where Lorca is arrested and executed by Falangist forces for his socialist politics and homosexuality. The opera explores themes of artistic courage, martyrdom, and the power of memory

A powerful narrative centered on the life of Reinaldo Arenas, a gay Cuban poet, novelist, and political dissident. The opera, framed by Arenas dying of AIDS in New York in 1990, flashes back to trace his journey: escaping rural poverty to join the revolution, only to be disillusioned and imprisoned by the Castro regime for his dissident writing and homosexuality. It follows his escape during the 1980 Mariel boatlift, his life in the United States, and his ultimate suicide

A three-part fusion oratorio that serves as a musical response to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay student in Wyoming. It is structured as a modern-day Passion, telling his story from childhood, through the hate crime that led to his death in 1998, to a final epilogue of healing and hope

King Saul, jealous of the deep friendship between his son Jonathas and David, banishes David. Despite his desire for peace, David is forced to join the enemy Philistine army and must go to war, knowing he may have to fight his beloved friend

The opera dramatises the life of Jack Saul (born John Saul), a flamboyant gay man and one of the most notorious rent boys of the Victorian era. The narrative, presented in concert form as the first two acts of a larger work, opens in a male bordello on Cleveland Street, where Jack (in his 30s) meets Sid, a young newcomer he tries to warn of the harsh experiences ahead. After Sid’s first client, he commits suicide. The second act follows Jack at a New Year’s Eve party at an aristocrat’s home, where class and power dynamics are explored, and he shares a duet with a closeted lesbian aristocrat. The work ends with Jack haunted by Sid’s ghost in a nightmare. Set against a backdrop of post-Famine Dublin and imperial London, the opera explores the messy power plays of agency, class, and colonialism tied to queer Anglo-Irish identity

For A Look Or A Touch is a story about the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust. Librettist Gene Scheer based his text on true stories told in the documentary film Paragraph 175 and the journal of Manfred Lewin, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Originally commissioned by Music of Remembrance, a second incarnation was commissioned by the Seattle Men’s Chorus and The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.
The piece offers an overview of the queer history of Berlin from the roaring 20s until the IIWW through the love story of Manfred, a concentration camp victim ghost, and Gad, the survivor, and one of the narrators in the documentary above.
Partly taken from Program Note provided by Music of Remembrance

At the end of his life, a dying Roman Emperor Hadrian is haunted by the death of his lover, Antinous. Guided by ghosts, he relives key moments from their relationship, ultimately discovering that his close friend Turbo killed Antinous to protect the Empire from what he saw as the corrupting influence of monotheism. Hadrian dies and is reunited with his beloved.

A gay couple, Tom and Alex, are deeply obsessed with Dolly Parton. Their relationship is falling apart. Through a series of scenes alternating between their real-life breakup and a fantasy world where Dolly Parton appears as an icon, they confront their disappointments with love, kitsch femininity, and each other. Dolly’s songs and persona serve as a metaphor for emotional duality and the extremes of heartbreak. The opera is a campy, melancholic examination of diva worship and gay male emotional life.

King Roger of Sicily rules a Christian kingdom but is unsettled by a charismatic, exotic Shepherd who appears and preaches a pagan, sensual religion of ecstasy. The Shepherd’s message awakens repressed desires in Roger and his wife, Roxana. The opera is a psychological conflict between rational, Christian order and irrational, Dionysian, homoerotic ecstasy. At the climax, Roger temporarily succumbs to the Shepherd’s seduction but ultimately rejects both extremes, embracing a lonely, wise solitude.

Set in a Québec prison in 1952, a bishop is summoned by inmates under the pretense of hearing a last confession. Instead, the prisoners force him to watch a re-enactment of a tragedy from 40 years prior, in which a forbidden love between two young men, Simon and Vallier, was brutally destroyed. As the story unfolds, a gay love triangle emerges, revealing that the bishop's own jealous interference led to the death of a young man many years ago

The opera recounts the historical story of the Roman emperor Nero's schemes to replace his wife, Octavia, with his mistress, Poppea. A subplot involves the Armenian prince Tiridates, who is in love with the fictional princess Cassandra. Adding to the intrigue, the emperor's favorite, Anicetus, falls in love with Octavia, complicating the political and romantic entanglements.

The first openly gay prime minister of Greece, Orfeas, decides to marry his partner, Euri, but in response, unidentified forces brutally beat Euri to death. Orfeas journeys to the underworld (a "Museum of Supernatural History") to bring his lover back. The gods agree to restore Euri, but only on the condition that the two men cannot marry, which they deem an affront to Greece's culture and traditions. Ultimately, Euri chooses not to return to life, certain that he would suffer the same fate again

The story follows Tobi, a graphic designer from Berlin, and Jan, a nurse from the countryside. After meeting at a local fair, they fall in love and build a life together in Jan’s hometown. However, their relationship becomes strained as Tobi idealizes rural life while Jan grows restless and eventually flees to Berlin. The operetta humorously and touchingly explores their journey through love, conflict, and eventual reconciliation

A chamber opera in two acts that chronicles the dissolution of a high school student in turn-of-the-20th-century Pittsburgh. After being suspended from school, Paul—a dandy who lives for the arts and works as an usher at Carnegie Hall—is forced by his father to give up his beloved job and take a real one. Feeling trapped, he steals money from his employer, flees to New York City, and revels in the luxury of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. During a drunken evening with a Yale freshman, he recoils from a romantic advance. When he reads in a Pittsburgh newspaper that his theft has been discovered, Paul ends his life by stepping in front of an oncoming train

Salome, the stepdaughter of King Herod, flees the banquet hall and becomes obsessed with the voice of the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan. When he rejects her advances, she demands his head as a reward for dancing the Dance of the Seven Veils. Her wish is granted, and in the final scene, she passionately kisses the severed head, after which the horrified Herod orders her execution.

One of two one-act operas that make up the double bill TRADE / Mary Motorhead. The story takes place in a cheap guesthouse in Dublin's north inner city. A vulnerable, eighteen-year-old rent boy sits with his middle-aged client. The older man has blood on his shirt, and a great deal has happened since the two last met.

A historical-fantasia that follows the life of mathematician Alan Turing, from his childhood through his groundbreaking work as a WWII codebreaker at Bletchley Park, to his prosecution and chemical castration for homosexuality in 1952, and his mysterious death two years later. The narrative is woven together by the ghost of Turing's first love, Christopher Morcom, who acts as a guide through the man's memories and his own internal world.

A setting of a fragment from Walt Whitman's 1865 poem of the same name, which describes the poet's experiences nursing wounded soldiers in a Civil War hospital. The text is notable for its homoerotic undertones and for presenting a male nurse figure at a time when nursing was a female-dominated profession

A verbatim opera based on interviews with gay men about their sex lives, focusing on "hard sex" and themes of violence and desire. The libretto combines fragments of these interviews with transcripts from the legal case Laskey, Jaggard, Brown vs. United Kingdom (1990), a trial where men were prosecuted for consensual violent sex

The opera follows the teenage Gaius (the young Julius Caesar) as he navigates his coming-of-age. Sent to the eastern kingdom of Bithynia as an emissary to secure ships from King Nicomedes, he is swept up in a passionate, sexually fluid love affair with the king. The story, which also includes his first fiancée Cossutia and his flight from Rome to escape the wrath of the dictator Sulla, focuses on the celebration of life and self-acceptance rather than the tragedy of being an outsider