Bogen Argues Schubert Was Gay

Schubert Mal Vier (Schubert Times Four) Presented By The Lark Ascending at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street on April 5 at 8 p.m., and at the German Consulate, 871 United Nations Plaza on April 21 at 6 p.m.

Since the 1990s, a fierce argument has raged among scholars as to whether Franz Schubert was a homosexual. Nancy Bogen, head of the performance group The Lark Ascending, thinks that he was. "While Schubert had a childhood romance with a neighbor’s daughter," Dr. Bogen said, "when he left home, at age 19, it was to move in with a young amateur poet named Franz Schober, with whom he lived on and off for the remaining twelve years of his life." Dr. Bogen further pointed out that Schubert fashioned lieder from twelve of Schober’s poems, including the incomparably beautiful and passionate An die Musik (To Music). Schubert also dedicated his setting of Goethe’s explicitly erotic poem Suleika I to Schober.

All this and more is pointed out in the program notes to Schubert Mal Vier (Schubert Times Four), which The Lark Ascending will present at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd Street on April 5 at 8 p.m., and at the German Consulate, 871 United Nations Plaza on April 21 at 6 p.m. Both performances are free and open to the public on a first-come-first-serve basis. To reserve a seat for April 5, call Dr. Bogen, 212-741-2417 and for April 21, call Mrs. Rennebarth at the German Consulate at (212) 610-9721.

Encouraged by the fact that Schubert’s lieder have been sung individually by different voices, Dr. Bogen decided to have them arranged for a soprano-alto-tenor-bass quartet. "I’m sure Schubert would’ve approved," Dr. Bogen said. Bogen got the idea after realizing that the strings of Schubert’s "Trout" Quintet and "Death and the Maiden" Quartet, both composed a few years after each lied, represent four different voices. Dr. Bogen engaged virtuoso-specialist Richard Duncan to arrange the music and train and accompany her hand-picked quartet: Shirley Perkins, soprano; Nicole Cherniak Hyde, mezzo-soprano; Alex Guerrero, tenor; and Peter Ludwig, bass-baritone.

Founded in 1997, The Lark Ascending is intended to give small, appreciative audiences a taste of the "best that was thought and said in the past," meaning poetry and drama, but also by extension, music and art. Performances are usually accompanied by appropriate visuals of Dr. Bogen’s creation.

Of special mention are Lark Ascending performances of Coeur de Lion, Mon Coeur, about the love-relationship between Richard Lionheart and trouvère Blondel de Nesle, written and illustrated by Dr. Bogen. See and hear it in the Gallery of The Lark Ascending website. Forthcoming soon is a workshop production of Dr. Bogen’s full-length play Lost Morning Eyes, about two mature women who were lovers in their twenties and find one another again after many years.

Dr. Bogen is a member of PEN, the Dramatists Guild of America and NYC’s Lesbian & Gay Center.

For further information, phone, write, or e-mail Dr. Bogen at The Lark Ascending at (212) 741-2417; 31 Jane Street, Suite 17B, New York, NY 10014; or nancyrbogen@cs.com.
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   artistic director
   The Lark Ascending
   New York,    NY,    10014
   USA
   212-741-2417 (phone)
   nancyrbogen@cs.com
   www.thelarkascending.org