Through José Esteban Muñoz’s and Saidiya Hartman’s ideas of queer ephemera and critical fabulation, Misha Zakharov’s lecture performance An Ass-Shaped Butterfly provides a speculative, reparative reading of the stage persona of Erik Kurmangaliev. This Kazakh operatic countertenor had a uniquely high-pitched voice, and became a fixture of the post-Soviet 1990s queer scene by starring in Ukrainian theatre maker Roman Viktyuk’s extravagant Moscow production of David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly.

Accompanied by a specifically designed libretto, the lecture will be followed by the rare screening of Rustam Khamdamov’s magical and irreverent Vocal Parallels—Kurmangaliev’s single feature film appearance, where he demonstrates his extraordinary vocal prowess alongside some of Kazakhstan’s most acclaimed opera singers, including Roza Dzhamanova and Bibigul Tulegenova.