THE QUEEN’S THROAT: Opera, Homosexuality and the...

THE QUEEN’S THROAT: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire by Wayne Koestenbaum (Vintage: $12; 271 pp., illustrated). Koestenbaum’s idiosyncratic view of opera, gay subculture and diva worship takes the form of a series of apercus he deals out like hands in a bizarre game of Old Maid: “The opera queen is lonely because he listens to opera: opera isolates him from the sexual marketplace.” His thesis is interesting, if moot, as he fails to distinguish between “opera queens” and people who listen to Callas CDs, not because they identify with her flamboyant on and off stage personae, but because they enjoy the beauties of the music. An odd choice for a National Book Award nomination.