LILI ELBE

Melanie Bacaling, Tobias Picker, and Aryeh Lev Stollman

Sylvia D'Eramo and Lucia Lucas

The spacious and comfortable theater at The Guggenheim Museum is the perfect home for Works & Process. The format is one of panel discussion alternating with performance. It allows audience members to get a preview of upcoming artistic events as described by their creators and illustrated by performances. One gets a glimpse behind the scenes, as it were.

Last night's event provided a panel discussion by the creators of a new opera Lili Elbe--composer Tobias Picker and librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman--moderated by Melanie Bacaling. Scenes from the opera were presented concert style by Lucia Lucas and Sylvia D'Eramo who are cast in the American premiere of the opera taking place on August 1st at the Santa Fe Opera. Although the scenes belonged to the two women, we had the opportunity to hear the terrific tenor Aaron Blake as well.

The subject of the opera is a German painter named Einar who transitioned to a female, a real "first" a century ago. What a courageous act that must have been! Increasingly common today and no longer called "sex reassignment surgery", it is now, to be politically correct, called  "gender affirming surgery".  Upon this topic we will not comment.

Now called Lili, the painter stopped painting but remained friends with his/her wife, underwent several surgeries and eventually died from complications of one of the surgeries, the details of which, Dear Reader, we will spare you. The story is a fascinating one and was made into a film which we plan to see in the near future. The fact that the role of Einar/Lili was played by a man provoked a wave of criticism.

No such criticism can be leveled at the opera because the role of Lili is played by a trans woman baritone named Lucia Lucas who also served as dramaturg, apparently making good use of her own experience. And what a strong voice she has. It had the same electrifying effect on us as hearing a man singing soprano or counter-tenor. The role of Gerda, the wife of Einar/Lili, was sung by Sylvia D'Eramo, a Santa Fe Opera favorite whom we have previously reviewed and much admired. The two voices sounded beautifully balanced and interesting in the duets.

The presentation last night aroused our curiosity and we have spent some time reading about this unusual individual's life experience. We can see that it is fine fodder for the theater and film. But what about its relevance to opera? Its European premiere took place last year in St. Gallen, Switzerland and was very well received and honored with prizes. The staging we saw in a You Tube clip from this production looked far more interesting than we might have imagined given what was offered last night. When there is no staging, no costumes and no drama, one must rely on the music.

And there's the rub! Like most contemporary composers, vocal lines are given short shrift and our ears leaned into the piano score, replete with jazzy riffs and rhythmic variation. The conversational libretto was set to vocal lines of minimal melodic nature. If Lili's story needed music to be told, we would imagine something far different, although we do note that the music reflects the time period of the 1920's and 30's. But the story is not a jazzy one. It is a tragedy!

Consequently, we are curious to know what Santa Fe Opera will do with this work....but not curious enough to make the trip.

© meche kroop