AIDS Fails to Sap Strengths of Ensemble : The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, performing in Irvine tonight, is ‘a place of joy’ amid the pain caused by the disease, says the group’s artistic director.

The outlook for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles might seem somewhat bleak. After all, the ensemble has already lost 85 members to the AIDS pandemic.

Nothing could be further from the truth, according to artistic director Jon Bailey, whose group brings a program titled “Sondheim!” to the Irvine Barclay Theatre tonight.

“People frequently ask, ‘How can you stand it?’ ” Bailey said. “But believe it or not, the chorus is a place of joy. People are beating the doors to get in.

“There’s a line in ‘Hidden Legacies’ (a work that was commissioned by the chorus and is not on tonight’s program): ‘We sing instead of screaming.’ Our songs can’t stop the dying . . . but the music works where words don’t work. It carries us beyond the pain.”

The two-hour concert will celebrate the music of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim with selections from musicals including “Into the Woods,” “Sunday in the Park With George” and “A Little Night Music.” To show its diversity in its first Orange County appearance, the chorus will also perform works ranging from Russian liturgical music to American folk music and spirituals.

All proceeds from the event will benefit the Elections Committee of the County of Orange, a gay, lesbian and feminist political action committee that fights discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender, and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles.

Bailey felt the music of Sondheim to be especially appropriate for such a fund-raiser.

“Many of his songs, particularly when taken out of their original context, resonate with the gay community,” Bailey said.

He cited several examples, beginning with “No One Is Alone,” from “Into the Woods.”

“The song says that people make mistakes, fathers and mothers make mistakes, but nevertheless, ‘no one is really alone,’ ” Bailey said. “In the song ‘Losing My Mind’ (from the musical “Follies”), thinking about the coffee cup, ‘remembering you’--that’s not about last night, that’s about people who have died.

“In the context of the show ‘Company,’ ” he continued, “ ‘Being Alive’ was kind of ‘80s and self-absorbed--the co-dependent national anthem. But for gay men (surrounded by) a lot of death, it becomes a cry for help, for love, for embracing one another.”

Bailey referred several times to the recent congressional hearings dealing with the issue of gays in the military. In fact, one of the songs on the upcoming program--”Gee, Officer Krupke,” from “West Side Story,” for which Sondheim wrote the lyrics--has been recast with a focus on that issue.

“The song now takes place at the West Hollywood Army recruitment center, with Sergeant Krupke trying to get all these gay men in line,” Bailey explained. “I didn’t say ‘go straight,’ I said ‘in line.’ ” He hopes performances by the Gay Men’s Chorus will undo some of the damage he believes the hearings did to the image of gays in America.

“The chorus is not just for the gay community, we’re there to build bridges beyond the gay community. Listening to those hearings, you’d think we are piranha ready to devour society. When people hear us sing, they’re softened. The muse works her charm.”

The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, one of more than 100 avowedly gay and lesbian choruses across the United States, continues to lose men to AIDS at a rate of eight to 10 each year. Yet even in the face of such obvious devastation, Bailey said that the crisis has had any number of positive effects on the chorus.

“The chorus gets stronger both in spite of the disease and because of it,” he said. “Last year I auditioned 135 and could only take 30 or 40.

“The ensemble is a safe place where people--HIV positive or negative--can come and really be who they are. So when people come home from the hospital, they don’t go home, they come here. They come in wearing their I.V. bags.

“It’s been said that the best tonic in the world is to join a choir,” he added. “In the case of the Gay Men’s Chorus, I’m convinced it keeps people alive.”

Which brought Bailey back to the not-so-bleak future.

“It’s hard to imagine the day when the AIDS crisis is over, but I think that one of the side effects will be similar to those who have been through the Holocaust,” he said. “They will come through stronger. They will know better who they are.

“Just as the Holocaust is a real watershed, a defining moment in contemporary Judaism, (the AIDS crisis) is a defining moment for the gay community. We’ve had to come out. We’ve had to stand up and not apologize. We’ve had to be who we are.”

* The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, led by artistic director Jon Bailey, presents “Sondheim!” tonight at 8. The event is a fund-raiser for the Elections Committee of the County of Orange and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. Tickets: $22 and $28. (714) 854-4646 or (714) 740-2000.