Dashing Reynaldo Hahn

By the age of 19 in 1894, dashing Reynaldo Hahn seemed to have it all...handsome, self-confident, smart and talented. Only there was something that he knew about himself that didn't fit into his own ideal of the perfect man...he way gay. To be fair, he was still a teenager and living in a world where political powers were changing and being gay was quickly becoming a negative religious tool (the scandal and disgrace of Oscar Wilde was about to happen...for more related history, please read my October post Gay Men & Religious Persecution: "Satan's Harvest Home" ).

While Reynaldo had already written many songs about love, his worldly sophistication masked both a shyness and self-loathing about his own personal sexual feelings. He had close intimate friendships with women, and his mixed-messages suggested that maybe he was confused and they could "change" him. The famed courtesan Liane de Pougy wrote Hahn love letters although she probably knew he could never reciprocate her feelings. Often sadly typical of men who see their sexuality as a flaw instead of a gift, in an effort to prove his masculinity, the personal letters Hahn wrote to his lady friends at that time were frequently very critical of "homosexuals" and "homosexuality".

But love stepped in and kicked him in the behind in 1894. At the home of artist Madeleine Lemaire he met an aspiring writer 3 years older than himself. Call it love at first sight, Hahn quickly changed his views about being gay when he found someone he loved. Living in a closet was no longer an option for him.  The guy he fell head over heels for was (then little-known)  Marcel Proust.  Proust and Hahn shared a love for painting and literature. They also shared a love for one another, and became lovers who traveled together and collaborated on various projects. Although by 1896 they were no longer having sex together, they remained lifelong friends and supporters until Proust's death in 1922.

The intense love affair with Proust set Hahn free as a gay man.  Hahn became a key member of the Paris gay set, which included Jean Cocteau and Saint-Saens. Now embracing his sexuality, his good looks and strong masculine personality were irresistible to many a man and he became very desirable in what must have been an amazing place and an amazing time to be gay in world history. Artist Charles Demuth (who I paid tribute to earlier this month,) also experienced that world.  In 1909, Hahn became a French citizen. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for service in the French Army. Although he was above the official age, Hahn was accepted and served, first as a private, finally reaching the rank of corporal in WWI. It's reported he earned the respect of those he served with.  While at the front he composed a song based on the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson. Forced to leave Paris in 1940 during the Nazi occupation (they hated and killed gays as well as Jews), he returned at the end of the war in 1945 to fulfill his appointment as director of the Paris Opéra. However, he died in 1947 of a brain tumor.  How wonderful he was able to live a life that allowed him to witness that the manhood "ideal" of his teens was a myth created by insecure others filled with hatred and political ambition; Only when he accepted himself for who he was did his world become filled with true love and happiness, and no longer just topics written in songs for others.

Hahn’s memoirs are thought to be a valuable source for the musical and literary life of the era, and it's very interesting to trace the views of gays through the various biographies that have been written about his most prominent lover, novelist Marcel Proust. Jean Yves Tadié, in his 1986 “Marcel Proust: a Biography,” writes that Proust abandoned his first novel, Jean Santeuil, because he broke off his passionate involvement with Reynaldo Hahn, the young composer for whom he was writing it.