FELIX / FELICITY
FELIX GRAHAM (bass-baritone/alto) came to the cabaret stage by way of the operatic and concert stage. As a classical, his primary repertoire consists primarily of pants roles, or operatic drag – roles written for women, who perform as young male characters…or sometimes, the more complicated version: as a women playing a young man, disguised as young woman. Moving between the opera house to the cabaret, Felix was inspired by the recursive nature of these pants roles, bringing that gender fluidity and androgynous characterization to contemporary music.
As a New York City-based cabaret performer, he specializes in the music of the 1920s and 30s, as well as Latin and standards from the American Songbook. In his contemporary repertoire, he has performed at Stage 72, at the White House's Music for the National Christmas Tree festival, at Room 53, and produced and performed in Love is a Many-Splintered Thing, an off-broadway musical set in 1930s queer New York. In 2019, he was cast in Decadence, a queer cabaret performance that gave him the opportunity to be the first trans-masculine singer to perform at the Friar’s Club in NYC.
As a classical performer, Felix has been a frequent performer of concert music, in addition to his work in opera. As a champion of American art music (new American music, in particular), Felix has given the world premieres of two new pieces composed for him by noted New York composer, Steve Cohen, in addition to premiering many other pieces by a variety of American composers. Other classical music work includes narration (The Magical Adventures of Nils Holgersson) and film projects.
Felix’s operatic and oratorio performances have included roles from works such as Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Der Schauspieldirektor, Die Zauberflöte and Le nozze di Figaro; Richard Strauss’s Ariadne and Elektra, Verdi’s Requiem, Aïda and Rigoletto, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Humperdinck’s Hansel iGretel, Gounod’s Faust, Obrecht’s Missa sine nomine, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Händel’s Serse, Alcina, Rinaldo and Ariodante.
