The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality and the Mystery of Desire is a 1993 book by American cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum

Wayne Koestenbaum

Wayne Koestenbaum is an American poet and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University...

. In it, Koestenbaum explores the relationship between gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 men and opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, with frequent reference to his own experiences. In particular, he finds a strong identification of the "opera queen" with the "diva." His connection between the two is the voice: he describes it as genderless, and it both allows female singers to become vicarious surrogates for closeted or fearful male listeners, and proves that the body of the opera singer and the queer body are both restrained.