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lucia lucas, a modern diva: the transgender opera star on life as a female baritone in accent magazine

Reactions to my transition have been polarising. Some conservative opera critics have gone so far as to tell me not to transition so I will stay in the industry.

In mainstream opera they’ve been queering it for a long time. Lots of productions will switch the genders of roles or drag up performers. But when you have a trans person doing it, all of a sudden some people’s heads explode. The same people who wouldn’t care if it was a man in the dress, suddenly freak out when there’s a trans woman playing that role.

There are lots of trans singers out there, but way more are in the closet than out. I’ve had friends who I’ve sang with for five years who assumed that I was done with opera because I was transitioning. I’m like, “Did I say I was quitting?” No, I’m going to keep doing it and I’m going to do it better than I’ve done it before.

On the brighter side of things, my supporters have been very enthusiastic and lots of directors have been excited to work with me. This autumn I’m working on a production of The Tales of Hoffmann with four directors, in which I’m playing three of the four male characters as female. As soon as you change the gender of one character it switches the dynamic of all the other characters. It plays games with the entire production. I’m also part of a new group called oedipa, where the end goal is forming a queer opera company.

I look forward to singing at any house that is ready for world-class opera.

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Alice Coote, unreasonably cute.

from Julius Drake’s website

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I finally got to see Jeanine de Bique live and it was awesome. She got an enthusiastic standing ovation at the Hollywood Bowl for her Handel arias on August 1, and rightly so. 

I didn’t shoot this video, but cheers to whoever did.

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Susanna, or via, sortite from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, sung by Simon Keenlyside, Julia Kleiter and Joélle Harvey.

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“One of Connolly’s memories of [George Christie] was his rich enjoyment at the sight of many in the audience bending down to the floor at the first entrance of Julius Caesar, something which happened every night. He liked to leave his box because—and she giggles at the recollection—‘he wanted to see how many people were picking up their programme books to check whether it was a man or a woman who was singing.’”

— James Naughtie interview with Sarah Connolly in the March 2015 issue of BBC Music Magazine (via verdiprati)

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Quel murmure charmant from Offenbach’s Fantasio, sung by Sarah Connolly and Brenda Rae.

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Susanne Mentzer singing Vois sous l'archet frémissant from Offenbach’s Les contes d'Hoffmann.

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Flicka, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jake Heggie dance their asses off while Joyce DiDonato sings Non Più Mesta (x)

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Because one of my posts last night put me in mind of Sara Couden, here she is singing “Nel profondo” from Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso in a concert a few years ago at the Staunton Music Festival. I look forward to seeing her THIS! FRIDAY! at the same festival, singing Irene in Handel’s Theodora. 

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Andrò ramingo e solo from Mozart’s Idomeneo, sung by Marie-Claude Chappuis, Ying Fang, Eleonora Buratto and Sergey Godin.

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Solitudini amiche … Zeffiretti lusinghieri from Mozart’s Idomeneo, sung by Ying Fang.

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Superbo! ah, tu vedrai from Rossini’s Demetrio e Polibio, sung by Jessica Pratt.

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Maria Callas in La Vestale by Gaspare Spontini, La Scala, 1954

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Jesus Garcia, Robert Davies and Kishani Jayasinghe in Timothy Nelsons production of Les pêcheurs de perles. Nederlandse Reisopera, 2015. (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

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Gloria Davy, American-born Swiss soprano (1931–2012), as Pamina in a New York Metropolitan Opera House production of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), circa 1958 | photo: Louis Mélançon, New York, N.Y.; source: Detroit Public Library

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