11 December 2023, 17 :23
Theater St. Gallen, LILI ELBE Picker
A new theater, which marks the first significant opera manufacturing about a transgender historic figure, tells the tale of Norwegian painter Lili Elbe from the 20th century.
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A big opera staring baritone Lucia Lucas is now the subject of a 20th-century performer and one of the first known individuals to undertake gender confirmation surgery.
The Danish Girl, a 2015 movie staring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, reportedly tells the story of Lili Elbe, an 1882-born Swedish landscape painting. The book was first released by David Ebershoff in 2000.
Elbe’s tale is being retold in a traditional second for theater in 2023. The second significant theater about a trans historical figure has been produced under the name Lili Elbe.
Lucia Lucas, an American tenor singer who made history in 2019 by becoming the first trans woman to play a lead opera role as Mozart’s renowned philanderer Don Giovanni for Tulsa Opera in the US, is the star of the title role.
Read more: Don Giovanni, a trans bass, makes its US debut.
TRAILER | Theater St. Gallen, LILI ELBE Picker
Tobias Picker, an American artist who won a Grammy, came up with the idea for Lili Elbe, which was written with Lucia Lucas in thinking.
A few years prior, Picker had found Lucas on YouTube and invited her to interview for a related job he had in mind before immediately casting her for Don Giovanni. Picker praised Lucas ‘ talent, saying,” It’s a great dramatic bass voice.” It “has tremendous energy and a depth of emotion.”
When Picker later asked Lucas to perform Lili Elbe once more, she agreed but insisted that she—or another transgender person—was involved in the opera’s production. On the first day of rehearsal, Lucas told Queer Guru TV,” I do n’t want to walk into a room and have no idea what’s going on.” ” That would n’t be appropriate given the importance of the story.”
To make the story feel as genuine and polite as possible, Lucas collaborated with librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman. There are a lot of similarities between Lili and my history, Lucas continued.
With today’s advocacy language,” We wanted to make it ]as ] up to date as possible, making it enjoyable for any trans performer to perform.” Because it has n’t always been a great experience for me to put my own identity—or an identity that is so similar to mine—on stage.
Read more: The lesser-known artist who was the first openly transgender Oscar nomination
The theater centers on Lili Elbe’s transformation and self-discovery as well as her relationship with other Danish painter Gerda Gottlieb.
The two first met while they were both students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and according to legend, Elbe started to socialize after filling in for a design who was running late for Gottlieb’s hanging.
Elbe and Gottlieb relocated to Paris, where they both hoped to see a real boost in their respective decoration careers as well as to start living openly as women and posing as each other’s sisters-in-law.
Before meeting European physician and person Magnus Hirschfeld in 1930, Elbe had already made up her mind to commit suicide. She went to Germany later that year to start her medical change.
The opera’s launch on December 3, 2023, marked the re-opening of the iconic Theater St Gallen in North West Switzerland, and Picker referred to it as his “most metaphysical work.”
It differs from everything I have ever written, he declared. It is about the earth’s eternal beauty, resurrection, and the progression of living.
Until June 8, 2024, you can watch Lili Elbe for complimentary on OperaVision.
