Dykes, ya know

It certainly is not news that lesbians are pretty handy around the opera house, whether it’s singing Octavian or running the light board. But the English National Opera is hoping that the promise of hot girl-on-girl action will give their box office a woody. The company is advertising their production of a new work called The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (based on the 1972 film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder) with a poster depicting a semi-nude woman caressing a female mannequin. Gerald Barry, who is reportedly not a lesbian, is the composer. The full lurid story is in the Sunday Times.