The Universal ‘EOS’

I found the tone of Richard Ginell’s review of the Gay Men’s Chorus concerts troubling . . . and perniciously homophobic (“Gay Men’s Chorus Accentuates the Positive in ‘EOS’ Premiere,” March 26). Ginell sniffed that “EOS,” one of the choral pieces performed, had a “text that was too specifically geared toward the gay community to be of much use in a more universal context.” What cant!

I sat in the audience with sophisticated friends of gay and straight persuasion, all of whom appeared deeply moved by the work. Is it possible that specific references in art to segments of the human community can speak universal truths? Not, apparently, in the narrow art tower Ginell inhabits. I wonder how he’d have reviewed a performance of Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” or Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood”? Or, perhaps more to the point, Grieg’s “Peer Gynt”? What could elves possibly have to say about the human condition?

To quote Willa Cather, “Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness.” There was truth on stage at the Alex Theatre; it’s a pity that Ginell missed it.

JOSEPH H. MAURER

Los Angeles