Drag-queen opera singer to light up Parliament House
When it comes to favorite cartoons, drag queen and opera singer Gilda Wabbit is a woman after my own heart. Her name comes from the Looney Tunes short “What’s Opera, Doc?” in which Bugs Bunny sings to the tune of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”: “Kill da wabbit! Kill da wabbit!”
“Bugs dons drag to seduce Elmer Fudd and escape his clutches,” Gilda exudes in an email. “Drag, opera, and slap-dash comedy? It’s a perfect fit for me.”
Gilda — the alter ego of classically trained opera singer Samuel Penn, a countertenor — takes the stage at Orlando’s Parliament House at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, with her “Big Gay Opera Show.” An advocate for diversity, she performs regularly in New York and tackles everything from Puccini to Pink, Mozart and Elvis Presley.
At her Parliament House show ($20-$30, parliamenthouse.com), Gilda Wabbit will be joined by local fave Darcel Stevens, who will also sing live.
Before arriving for the show, which connects classical music to today’s pop culture for opera lovers and neophytes, Gilda answered our five questions.
1. What’s the appeal of opera to a drag queen? Opera, like drag, is full of amazing costumes, wild wigs and makeup, drama, sex, and humor! Plus, there’s plenty of drag in opera — men play women, women play men, gender is mixed up and messed with, everyone is confused and aroused by it. What’s not to love?
2. What’s it like being a singing performer in a lip-sync world? I’d definitely challenge the idea that drag is a “lip-sync” world. Drag used to be very live-performance heavy, and the pendulum has just swung towards lip sync right now. However there’s still a thriving live-performance culture — Stephanie’s Child from New York, Kat Sass in Chicago, Jonnie Reinhardt in LA.
3. What’s an operatic role you’d most like to play (and, of course, why)? I really want to play Despina in Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” someday! Not only is it perfect for me vocally, but she’s hilarious and flirtatious and causes a lot of trouble.
4. What’s your advice for people who don’t think they like opera? Folks who don’t like opera are a lot like folks who don’t like gay people: They just don’t know enough yet. I try really hard to be an ambassador for queerness and for classical music all at once. A woman in Ohio told me she missed Jimmy Buffett to see my show! If I can convince a Midwestern mom to skip Buffett to watch a drag queen sing opera, I can sell ice to a polar bear.
5. What would you like to do to people who dare to make “fat lady sings” jokes? Honestly, I wish more fat folks were singing in opera nowadays, but plenty of my friends who are amazing musicians struggle to get cast because the opera world wants “Hollywood thin.” So every time you make a fat lady singing joke, you better find a fat singer to give some money to. They’ve earned it!