{"id":44135,"date":"2024-06-29T10:21:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T08:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dc8c79bc-60ff-4360-914d-1d7488a88fb4"},"modified":"2024-06-29T10:36:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T08:36:14","slug":"how-one-transgender-baritone-changed-the-story-of-opera-in-america","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/how-one-transgender-baritone-changed-the-story-of-opera-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"How one transgender baritone changed the story of opera in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 29 June 2024 at 08:21 AM<\/p>

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American baritone Lucia Lucas may not be the only transgender singer on today\u2019s operatic stage, but she was among the very first to transition while maintaining what is an increasingly busy career. And she is certainly the most prominent: for some years she has been based in Germany, but her work involves major productions with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Lyric Opera of Chicago and London\u2019s English National Opera.<\/p>

At these and other venues, audiences are by now used to seeing her play male roles on stage \u2013 including, in autumn 2022, the Sacristan in Christof Loy\u2019s production of Puccini’s Tosca <\/em>at ENO, and at the beginning of 2023 Grech in David McVicar\u2019s staging of Giordano\u2019s Fedora <\/em>at the Met. Managements, audiences and the singer herself all take this in their stride as no big deal. \u2018I guess the whole thing that I\u2019m always fighting against is that I\u2019m fine playing men on stage, and my private life is my private life.\u2019<\/p>

Where is Lucia Lucas from?<\/h2>
Lucas comes from Sacramento \u2013 \u2018a beautiful place,\u2019 she tells me, \u2018situated between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe\u2019. Was her family interested in music, theatre or opera? \u2018Not really. My dad\u2019s a civil engineer and my mom is an electrical engineer, and my interest still puzzles them.\u2019 Growing up there, she had a tough time expressing herself \u2018until I got into music, partly because it allowed me to express myself without words. So being able to send the energy of what I felt to somebody else was powerful for me.\u2019<\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><p>When did her move towards gender reassignment begin? Was there a certain point at which she began to reconsider who she was? \u2018As soon as I knew that there were boys and girls, I knew that when I was being told that I was one thing, that wasn\u2019t right.\u2019<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-when-did-lucia-lucas-come-out\">When did Lucia Lucas come out?<\/h2><p>The decision to transition came much later. \u2018In 2013 I was in South Korea doing Biterolf in <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-wagners-tannh-user\">Tannh\u00e4user<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. My wife was in Germany, and we were discussing things and she said, \u201cYou know, maybe when you\u2019re back, you can talk to somebody about this.\u201d So I started talking to doctors.\u2019<\/p><p>The reason she decided to come out in 2014 is because she had a psychologist who would not allow her access to medication until she came out at work. \u2018That\u2019s not the rule in most places: depending on where you are, the rule for a long time has been that you must live as your target gender for a year, or two or three. <\/p><p>‘I was on contract in Karlsruhe, so I came out at work, and the Intendant said, \u201cOK, so how does all this work?\u201d I told him that nobody had ever done this before as a stage performer in an opera house. So he said, \u201cThen there\u2019s one thing I must ask. What happens with the voice? Because we hired you as a baritone.\u201d\u2019<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-i-can-still-sing-baritone-just-glue-a-beard-on-me-and-then-we-re-fine\">‘I can still sing baritone \u2013 just glue a beard on me, and then we\u2019re fine’<\/h3><p>Lucas explained to him that, for better or worse, the voice doesn\u2019t change. \u2018If I could wake up tomorrow and sing Br\u00fcnnhilde, then I could figure it out \u2013 but that\u2019s not how it works. I can still sing baritone \u2013 just glue a beard on me, and then we\u2019re fine \u2013 and that\u2019s what we did.\u2019<\/p><p>Our meeting comes near the end of a long run of <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/puccinis-tosca-guide\">Tosca<\/a><\/strong> <\/em>at the London Coliseum. \u2018In 2011-12 I did the Sacristan in Germany in Italian, so it\u2019s familiar. I also know the people at ENO\u2019 \u2013 Lucas sang the<br\/>role of Public Opinion in the company\u2019s Offenbach <em>Orpheus in the Underworld <\/em>in 2018 \u2013 \u2018so it was like coming home.’<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lucia Lucas in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for English National Opera. Pic: Alamy – Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-musical-beginnings\">Musical beginnings<\/h2><p>Going right back to her start, her musical development began around the fourth grade when she joined a school band. \u2018I really wanted to play the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/saxophone-invention\">saxophone<\/a><\/strong>. But you had to learn to play clarinet first, so eventually I played a bunch of different instruments \u2013 clarinet, trumpet, all sorts of saxophones.\u2019 While still in high school, she also started playing the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/the-history-of-the-french-horn\">French horn<\/a><\/strong>, \u2018and that was my instrument when I went to college at California State University Sacramento with music as my major.\u2019<\/p><p>It was at college that her singing really took off. \u2018As an undergraduate, I got seven roles in college productions: first Bartolo in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/mozarts-marriage-of-figaro-guide\"><strong>The Marriage of Figaro<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, then later I did things like Falstaff in <em>The Merry Wives of Windsor <\/em>and Seneca in <em>Poppea <\/em>\u2013 a little low, but you know, that\u2019s fine.\u2019 In fact, her versatility means that she has been able to take on bass-baritone and even bass repertoire as well. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/news\/mozart-s-marriage-figaro-voted-greatest-opera-all-time\">Mozart’s <em>The Marriage of Figaro<\/em> voted the greatest opera of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-if-you-are-young-and-have-comedic-talent-there-are-so-many-roles\">‘If you are young and have comedic talent, there are so many roles’<\/h3><p>\u2018When I had a contract in Germany, it didn\u2019t say \u201cbass\u201d, but I did a lot of bass stuff there, too. If you are young and have a little bit of comedic talent, there are so many little roles that you can get plugged into. If they\u2019re putting on <em>Tosca<\/em>, and maybe your dream role is Scarpia \u2013 someday, when you\u2019re ready for it \u2013 in the meantime there are four other smaller roles you can do: Angelotti, the Sacristan, Sciarrone and the Gaoler. I did Don Giovanni, but I\u2019ve also done Leporello, the Commendatore and Masetto.\u2019<\/p><p>After college, Lucia Lucas went on to do a graduate degree and an artist\u2019s diploma at the College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago where she studied voice with Richard Stilwell, acquiring a masters and an arts diploma in conjunction with Chicago Opera Theatre. Her first professional engagement was Tom in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/giuseppe-verdi\">Verdi<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Un ballo in maschera <\/em>for Opera Santa Barbara in 2007; then she moved on to cover Leporello and Spencer Coyle in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/benjamin-britten-composer\">Benjamin Britten<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Owen Wingrave <\/em>for the Chicago company. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1068\" height=\"1088\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-29-at-09.17.11.png\" alt=\"Lucia Lucas (left) as the Sacristan with Adam Smith in Puccini's Tosca for English National Opera, 2022\" class=\"wp-image-207202\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lucia Lucas (left) as the Sacristan with Adam Smith in Puccini’s Tosca for English National Opera, 2022 – Clive Barda \/ ArenaPAL<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-to-germany-and-wagner\">To Germany… and Wagner<\/h2><p>After a couple of seasons doing small roles and covering larger ones at Santa Fe Opera, she moved to the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. Why this step? \u2018As my voice had a more dramatic quality, people told me I should go to Germany because I\u2019d do well in the German repertoire. So I tried some out \u2013 Wotan\u2019s \u2018Abendlich strahlt\u2019 [from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/richard-wagner\">Richard Wagner<\/a><\/strong>‘s <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-wagners-das-rheingold\">Das Rheingold<\/a><\/strong><\/em>], for instance, became one of my main audition arias. <\/p><p>‘I sang it for Christoph Seuferle in New York in 2009 and he hired me for 46 performances at the Deutsche Oper, which is where I made my European debut later that same year.\u2019 That was a busy period, with lots of words and lots of productions both in Berlin and Turin (a further 18 performances) to learn. \u2018I was on stage all the time. It really was a trial by fire!\u2019<\/p><p>Germany has been home ever since, these days in Karlsruhe, \u2018because I spent five years there, and my wife also spent five years there \u2013 though not at the same time.\u2019 (She is married to the contralto Ariana Lucas.)<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-2019-a-breakthrough-year\">2019: a breakthrough year<\/h2><p>After several successful years on the European stage, her initial return to the US came with the title role of <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/mozarts-don-giovanni-best-recordings\">Don Giovanni<\/a><\/strong><\/em> at Tulsa Opera in 2019 \u2013 not only her first appearance in the US as a transgender artist, but also the first occasion when a transgender artist had taken a leading role with an American company. Lucia Lucas’s planned debut at the New York Met in May 2021 \u2013 as the Bosun in Britten\u2019s <em>Billy Budd <\/em>\u2013 was, she explains, wiped out by Covid; but she subsequently took on Angelotti in <em>Tosca <\/em>there in March 2022.<\/p><p>Earlier this year, she took part in the world premiere of <em>Proximity <\/em>at Chicago\u2019s Lyric Opera Chicago \u2013 \u2018three operas telling contemporary stories, mostly American and sort of Chicago-specific, but I think relatable for everyone.\u2019 Three different composers \u2013 Daniel Bernard Roumain, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/who-is-caroline-shaw\">Caroline Shaw<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/john-luther-adams-2\">John Luther Adams<\/a><\/strong> \u2013 were involved.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-world-s-wife\"><em>The World’s Wife<\/em><\/h3><p>Upcoming in London is a show to be performed (and livestreamed) from Milton Court at London\u2019s Barbican Centre on 2 May. First staged in 2017, <em>The World\u2019s Wife <\/em>is a chamber opera by Glasgow-based Tom W Green that draws on the eponymous anthology by the Scottish writer and former Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy: Green\u2019s score quotes music by distinguished women composers of various periods. Originally the piece was written for soprano and string quartet, \u2018but we have curated that a little bit more\u2019.<\/p><p>First staged in Holland in April 2022, Jorinde Keesmaat\u2019s production involves Lucia Lucas joining the all-female <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ragazzequartet.nl\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ragazze Quartet<\/a><\/strong>. \u2018We are all acting and moving together, so it\u2019s a wild piece, and tricky, but I think it\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s a mix of historical women and fictional women, so we have people like Shakespeare\u2019s wife Anne Hathaway, but also Little Red Cap [alias Red Riding Hood], Medusa and Queen Herod. It is the most energy I have ever spent on an opera production!\u2019<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with Lucia Lucas, baritone in The World's Wife\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8UIgY50pKNQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-lucia-lucas-on-playing-a-groundbreaking-transgender-artist\">Lucia Lucas on playing a groundbreaking transgender artist<\/h2><p>Another future project promises to be even more ground-breaking. At the time of Lucas\u2019s return to the United States as Don Giovanni in Tulsa, the company\u2019s artistic director was composer Tobias Picker; Lucas is to be the star of Picker\u2019s new opera <em>Lili Elbe<\/em>, to be premiered in St Gallen in Switzerland in October. The Danish painter <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lili_Elbe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lili Elbe<\/a><\/strong> (born Einar Wegener, 1882-1931) was one of the first people to undergo gender realignment surgery. \u2018These days, people are saying, \u201cThis is a new thing,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t even a new thing in 1930. It\u2019s something that has always existed, and different civilizations have had different takes on it.\u2019<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-people-are-saying-this-is-a-new-thing-but-it-wasn-t-even-a-new-thing-in-1930\">‘People are saying \u201cThis is a new thing,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t even a new thing in 1930’<\/h3><p>With this production, Lucas decided that she wanted to have a voice in the room officially. \u2018I asked if I could be the dramaturg, and so I\u2019ve spent a lot of time with Tobias and with librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman.\u2019 The result draws as a source on Elbe\u2019s own semi-autobiography, published posthumously as <em>Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex. <\/em>\u2018Of course, it\u2019s a story from that time \u2013 but there are so many parallels between Lily\u2019s journey and my journey.\u2019<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-lucia-lucas-on-being-a-positive-influence\">Lucia Lucas on being a positive influence<\/h2><p>It\u2019s perhaps inevitable that a trailblazing, high-profile artist such as Lucia Lucas will be seen as a<br\/>role model for fellow transgender singers. But the mantle is not necessarily an easy one to bear. \u2018Just to be frank about it \u2013 I\u2019m not trying to be a role model for transgender artists, because that\u2019s too much pressure,\u2019 she says. \u2018I hope that I can be a positive influence. I hope that I can be a positive person. I hope that the way in which I act and live can help somebody \u2013 and if it does, that\u2019s wonderful.\u2019<\/p><p>She is, however, open to speaking to artists forging similar paths as her own. \u2018My email address is public, and if people want to message me \u2013 especially people going through a similar journey \u2013 I\u2019m always open to that,\u2019 she shares. \u2018I hope that I could be a test case where somebody can say, \u201cLucia did this, so maybe I can do it.\u201d But I don\u2019t want to be held up as something, because we\u2019re all human and make mistakes. If you\u2019re held up too high, the fall is greater.<\/p><p>\u2018My philosophy is, if I\u2019m happy where I am right now, then everything that has happened \u2013 good and bad \u2013 led me to this moment,\u2019 she continues. \u2018Have positive things happened? Yes. Have negative things happened? Yes, of course! But without the negative things, I wouldn\u2019t necessarily be where I am right now.\u2019<\/p><p><em>This article first appeared in the May 2023 issue of BBC Music Magazine<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Saturday, 29 June 2024 at 08:21 AM American baritone Lucia Lucas may not be the only transgender singer on today\u2019s operatic stage, but she was among the very first to transition while maintaining what is an increasingly busy career. 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