In 1998, SFGMC traveled to Sydney, Australia, for its first international trip. The chorus performed at Sydney Town Hall as part of the city’s Gay Mardi Gras celebrations, presenting NakedMan and its ABBA program, extrABBAganza, billed together as “The Best of the Best!”
The visit brought music developed in San Francisco to an international LGBTQ+ audience.
The music and the Mardi Gras connection
The two programs represented recent chapters in the Chorus’s musical life. The San Francisco Bay Times identifies “NakedMan” as a commission by composer Robert Seeley and librettist Philip Littell addressing the impact of AIDS. Its discography dates the “NakedMan” recording to 1996 and “ExtrABBAganza!” to 1997.
Sydney’s celebration also has a historical link to San Francisco. In its reporting on the original Mardi Gras marchers, the Bay Area Reporter traced the first parade on June 24, 1978, to a solidarity appeal from San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Committee. The Australian organizers combined political action with a festive nighttime march; police violence against participants became a defining moment in the movement. The Chorus’s 1998 visit came in the twentieth anniversary year of that first parade, placing its music within a longer history of LGBTQ solidarity between the two cities.
Watch the retrospective
From SFGMC historian Tom Burtch’s 44-year retrospective.
Explore more journeys beyond San Francisco.
Sources
- San Francisco Bay Times: SFGMC’s 35-year retrospective.
- Bay Area Reporter: Australia’s 78ers receive official apology (Heather Cassell, March 2, 2016).
