Name: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Hometown: Paris, France
Listen to: ‘Carnival of the Animals’, ‘Danse Macabre’, ‘Samson et Dalila’.
Saint-Saëns is most famous for his suite ‘Carnival of the Animals’, however, it may surprise many to learn about his personal life. At 40 years old, leaving both his friends and family baffled, Saint-Saëns married Marie-Laure Truffot with whom he had two children. However, after the consecutive deaths of his children in 1878, he walked out of the marriage and—although the two did not divorce—never saw his wife again, bringing an end to the many years that he had hidden from his sexuality. Saint-Saëns remained social for the rest of his life, engaging in multiple trips to Algiers, a popular destination for gay men. It was also well-known that he would perform in drag and he often danced in tutus in front of Tchaikovsky, another gay composer of the time.