A transgender baritone sings Don Giovanni in America
mainThe Germany-based transgender baritone Lucia Lucas has been cast in the title role in Mozart’s opera, to be staged in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in May.
Tulsa Opera Artistic Director Tobias Picker said: ‘Making history, Tulsa Opera presents baritone Lucia Lucas in her American operatic debut as a transgender woman. Lucia Lucas’s appearance here will mark the first time a trans woman has performed a principal role on the operatic stage in the United States.’
saw Lucia in Hoffmann in Wuppertal – thought she was fantastic.
Why is she not singing roles for written for women?
Because it’s virtually impossible for the gender reassignment process to feminise the post-pubertal male voice to the extent that a trans woman would be able to sing in the female range, let alone take on operatic roles.
In my experience, pitch is only a third of the story when one is ‘gendering’ a voice. We have a term here on ‘TERF Island’; Camp. It’s a semi-derogatory term for when someone sounds like they might be Queer, or Gender-NonConforming etc. It’s a bit like a Drag voice, or like Terence Stamp’s great insult in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
No one makes history in opera, unless voice and artistical skills are untouched. Other reasons are just big bully slaps in Mozart’s face (in this case). The question is: how was the performance? Does it makes history in music by itself? If yes. BRAVISSIMO!
This is sort of unintelligible, but do you mean that, for instance, Marian Anderson’s race didn’t matter, and that she is only remembered for being the Azucena of her era?
Unintelligible is to point out a fake fact. She could not be the best Azucena of her era, since her only time acting was as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera. She was recognised as an incredible vox in recitals by audiences and critics in the USA and Europa. So, It’s seems she had huge talent. If she didn’t have it, she wouldn’t deserved such praise. At the least not in the opera stage. Prejuduce wasn’t invented or belongs to real art.
Perhaps the most irony-filled non-ironic comment I’ve ever seen on Slipped Disc. 😛
So how does she play Rigoletto? Dressed up like a dude?
One would imagine so.
If Lucia was a man that transitioned to a woman, wouldn’t she take female hormones which would raise the voice to female range, or did she just have facial, breast, genital surgery and forgo the female hormones because they interfered with the beautiful Baritone voice?
I am going to assume that this comment was made in good faith through ignorance of the facts and is not intended to be an attack on trans women in general or Lucia Lucas in particular.
A male-to-female transsexual does take female hormones. Indeed, breast development in male-to-female transsexuals at least initially is stimulated by these hormones. Typically the breast development is smaller than in cis-females, which is why many male-to-female transsexuals do have breast surgery, but breast surgery is by no means a ubiquitous part of the transition process.
Furthermore, female hormones do not feminise the voice, or at any rate have almost imperceptible impact on the voice. This is because the deepening of the male voice that occurs during puberty results from irreversible physical changes. Therefore the only options available to trans-women are speech therapy or surgery. Speech therapy is by far the most common treatment, as surgery is still considered somewhat unreliable and potentially dangerous, making it very uncommon and an absolute last resort.
You seem familiar with gender reassignment procedures . So you probably know it is big busine$$ for psychiatrists, surgeons and the pharmaceutical industry. And tragically for undertakers too, as the suicide rate for transgenders is almost 10 times higher than in the general population.
That and the fact that they actually shorten their lifespan for this. This in itself should tell you there’s something wrong that needs to be address by a professional.
Was this intended to be as dismissive and completely ignorant of non-cis gender identity as it is? How repulsive.
And why do you think that is?
This gives the term “trouser role” new meaning.
No amount of surgical disfigurement and toxic drug treatments can change a Y chromosome into an X.
No amount of scientific evidence and rational thought serves necessarily to change a disfigured, toxic perspective into an enlightened one, it would seem.