Nathan Gunn has appeared in many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. But even without that big talent we'd still take notice. Just look at that chest.

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Queerty is trying to puzzle out this question: on which side of the aisle does Newsday music critic Justin Davidson sit? Ripping into the premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy as if he were Sha-Boom-Boom and it were Hedda Lettuce, Davidson misaligned the new opera as a “flaccid melodrama.” Was he mixing it up with what happened to him in bed afterwards? Most other critics have greater praise for the score.

Davidson went on to say something that makes you think “No, he can’t possibly be gay;” namely, he said he thought the thing should only be half as long as it is. Then again, evaluating baritone Nathan Gunn, who sang the lead role of Clyde, Davidson claimed that he has “the finest legs in opera.” What is Renee Fleming; chopped foie gras?

Writing in the New York Times, Pulitzer-Prize winning critic Anthony Tommasini . . . proudly on our side of the aisle, and a far more incisive reviewer than Davidson, had many more favorable comments to make on An American Tragedy, yet refrained from mentioning Nathan Gunn’s legs. If your legs can’t get you to the Met to see Picker’s piece live, remember that the broadcast will take place on the afternoon of December 24.

Operatic dreamboat Nathan Gunn will be starring as Clyde Griffiths in the December 2 premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera House. Its libretto based on Theodore Dreiser’s classic novel, An American Tragedy relates the tale of Clyde, involved with Sondra and Roberta, but truly enamored of Sondra. Roberta becomes pregnant; Clyde plots her murder and is eventually sent to the electric chair for her death.

Baritone Nathan Gunn set tongues to wagging when he appeared as the protagonist of Benjamin Britten’s opera Billy Budd. Based on Herman Melville’s novella, the story has homosexual undertones stronger than Kona coffee. Gunn played most of the role shirtless, his chiseled pecs detracting not one iota from his magnificent vocal performance. If you can scare up a DVD of him in the role, you will be well rewarded.

Tobias Picker is one of the nation’s foremost composers; discreet about his sexuality, his sexuality nonetheless is. So if we’re asking anybody to come out, we’re asking you to come out and support this new work, An American Tragedy. For those unable to make the Met Opera debut, the Saturday matinee will be broadcast live on December 24.

Something distinctly gay is happening at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. That in itself may not qualify as news, yet you have not lived until you’ve seen tenor Greg Fedderly performing as Don Basilio in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Fastidiously prancing about, this Basilio looks like an 18th-century drag queen’s wet dream.

She sports a purple, crushed velvet frock over purple, crushed velvet britches that harmonize to cross-dressing perfection with her electric pink leggings, which show from her buckle heels to her knees. Basilio, of course, is a gossipy musician; the favorite target of his wagging tongue is Cherubino, a boy character sung by a girl mezzo-soprano. In this case, Basilio walks the walk, talks the talk and sashays the sashay such that you have no doubt regarding his orientation.

But is Greg Fedderly the human being, as opposed to Don Basilio the character, on our side of the gene pool? We’re happy not to have to crush your hopes like that purple velvet; Greg Fedderly has appeared in a For the Boys special with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. He is, furthermore, the proud owner of Off Vine, at 6263 Leland Way, Hollywood, a restaurant serving California Cuisine in a classic arts and crafts setting.

Limited seats are still available for the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night gala at 7P.M. on Monday, September 19 at the Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center. Three individual acts of different operas will be given, Tosca, Le Nozze di Figaro and Samson and Dalila.

While the isolated acts from different works do not make for an evening of unimpeachable dramatic integrity, each has been cast with many of the finest artists of our age, including Placido Domingo and Angela Gheroghiu.

Opening Night at the Metropolitan Opera traditionally brings out a dazzling audience sprinkled with celebrities and diamonds. Many of them actually know and enjoy what they are listening to, though there is the stray gay boyfriend who gets dragged by his partner but falls asleep even though there is a huge symphony orchestra supporting an ensemble of five soloists and a 150-singers-strong chorus and, in the case of Samson and Dalila, an onstage orgy.

Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright once said: "Frank Sinatra has passed on the torch to me. But little did he know that he'd be passing it on to a gay opera queen."

We like to think Frank knew exactly what he was doing.

On Thursday, Sept. 8, you can see the torch holding Rufus perform in the "Opera for All" gala at the New York State Theater. To hype his performance, the New York Times allowed itself a Wainwright opera roofie.

Gay people should almost be tricked into loving it (opera). In the middle of the night at a rave, when all the revelers are peaking on Ecstasy, they should turn the music off and put on "Samson et Dalila," just to scare them sort of, and show the other side of bliss.

As much as we (and you?) might enjoy opera, we no more endorse that idea than would suggest a staid opera audience to drop Ecstasy while watching "La Traviata" and then dance their asses off as Violetta dies of consumption.

Rufus, meanwhile, confesses that in the dorm room at his upstate New York boarding school, he danced naked while listening to "The Dance of the Seven Veils" from Strauss's "Salome."

Which suggests a new book title: How to Tell When a Pop Icon is a Bottom For Dummies. As a reminder, the song Rufus sang for the Moulin Rouge, "Complainte de la Butte" does not mean "my ass requires something bigger."

So it’s called The Little Prince, sue me. Did you ever read that book and hear a dulcet inner voice telling you that whoever wrote the charmed volume had sprinkled his share of fairy dust?

The bad news is that the author, Count Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry, married a Salvadoran woman, Consuelo Suncin Sandoval Zeceña de Gómez and cheated on her many times over.

The good news is, you aren’t the only one to imagine that he cheated with a randy homo. The Italian writer Barbara Alberti wrote a novel “Il Principe Volante” (The Flying Prince) in which she imagines Saint-Exupéry to be in love with a male school companion, only named as X. The book caused a mini-scandal in Europe, where it was discussed in every gay café from Ibiza to Stockholm.

We won’t even mention that as a youth, Saint-Exupéry attended a Catholic boarding school run by the Marianist Fathers in Fribourg. But we will tell you that in November at the New York City Opera, you can see an operatic adaptation of The Little Prince. The music is by Rachel Portman, who won an Oscar for her score to Emma. The City Opera page devoted to the piece includes an intriguing trailer of the upcoming production.

Queerty tip: If you want to see some of Gotham’s most fabulous gays decked out in their Dolce & Gabbana finest, go opening night, November 12.