Long Live the Queen (a her-story of drag) is a large-scale work featuring Cookie Diorio as drag artist, librettist, and costume designer, with music by composer Andrea Clearfield. The final work will be one-hour in length and scored for drag soloist (tenor), chorus, and a chamber instrumentation of strings, winds, piano and percussion. The work will explore a unique intersection of opera, cantata, drag, performance art, multimedia oratorio, and cabaret.
Original texts by Cookie also incorporate quotations from role model drag queens, highlighting the role drag plays in our society and the LGBTQ+ community. The piece will contextualize the contributions of drag performers as activists and proponents for social change, as well as the impact our social systems have on drag presented in three periods: 1. Before (When), 2. Now (Conflict), and 3. Forward (Where). The dynamic work will create a vision for understanding, acceptance, and social and cultural change in light of increased discrimination against drag artists and events in the U.S.
Drag has traditionally been used on the opera stage solely as a contrived way to impose specific voice parts upon a character as the travesti role. Conversely, using classical vocal performance to express drag culture, drag history, and contemporary modes of drag performance from an authentic, first-person point of view is an avenue that has yet to be fully explored in opera. The art of drag and operatic performance share commonalities in language, form, and function: both require high levels of technical skill and artistic development; both rely upon storytelling through music and both have a grandiosity in visual design and aesthetic quality.
Dr. Clearfield was awarded a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in February, 2024 where she composed Part 1 of the evening length work. The Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus premiered Part I with drag soloist, chorus, piano, 2 percussion and bass conducted by Joseph Buches as Artistic Director at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia on May 17 and 18, 2024. Long Live the Queen Part 1 was a featured work at the GALA Festival (LGBTQ+ Choruses) at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on July 13, 2024. We were invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to present excerpts at the Rockefeller Pride at Rockefeller Foundation Global Headquarters at 420 5th Avenue (NYC) on June, 12, 2024.
The composer and librettist are currently seeking funding to complete the work.