The Boston Gay Men's Chorus has taken its act - and its message of gay rights - on the road for a 10-day, three-city tour of Europe that includes the first performance ever by an openly gay group in Poland.
Because of a recent incident in Warsaw, the chorus's visit, five years in the planning, has, according to executive director Steven Smith, ``really become a minor sensation.''
Last week, gay pride marchers defied a ban by Warsaw's mayor and took to the streets of the country's capital, resulting in several arrests. That's quite different from Massachusetts gays' recent proud and public celebrations of the first anniversary of legal gay marriage in the commonwealth.
``We're told that a lot of people from Warsaw are taking the train to Wroclaw (where the chorus will perform at Philharmonic Hall on Monday),'' Smith said. ``They've even changed the time of the concert to meet the train schedule.'' Poland's first lady, Jolanta Kwasniewska, is expected to attend the event.
The chorus is scheduled to arrive today in Berlin, where it'll perform throughout the weekend's gay pride festivities - including an outdoor concert near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to be telecast live. It will also meet with Berlin's openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, and deliver a letter of greeting from Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
From Berlin the chorus travels to Poland before wrapping up the tour in Prague with a July 1 concert to benefit a campaign in the Czech Republic for gay civil unions. So it's no accident that the chorus is bringing a work it premiered in March: ``A More Perfect Union,'' a suite of songs celebrating gay marriage in Massachusetts.
By T.J. Medrek |