First Person: trans opera singer Lucia Lucas on Tippett’s 'New Year' and her life in music

Until last week, Tippett’s New Year had not been staged since 1990, probably because it’s considered very hard to produce. I think it is generally harder than Britten. It’s also an ensemble piece; you need 10 people who are fairly accomplished in performing new works.

There are parts that needed to be updated. Some of the libretto, seen through our lens of 2024, seemed insensitive. You can’t sanitise everything and take the drama out of the story, but it was important to update, with the blessing of Tippett’s estate.

When we first started, everyone was simply trying to do it right, but it was fun to see the variations from rehearsals and between the shows. As time went on, our conductor Alpesh Chauhan took more risks and was really playing with the soundscape, which was exciting. It felt like he was driving the orchestra and had complete control. (Pictured below: Lucas as Merlin and Joshua Stewart as Pelegrin)Because the audience is mobile, they were in different positions every night. Sometimes I had to weave in and out more and people didn’t know I was right behind them. The Dream Tent is not actually the wildest place I’ve ever played. I’ve sung in a bombed-out restored church and fringe-type festivals where it’s a case of “here’s your corner”. It doesn’t really faze me as long as I’m aware of any obstacles, like an uneven floor. We discovered when it rained that the cube where I spend half the show can get really slippery, so we had to watch out for that.

Now that the run is over, I’m so thankful it was successful and that we had such a supportive audience every night. I love that Alpesh and Keith [Warner, the distinguished director, picking up where the late, great Graham Vick left off] were able to resurrect such a complex piece with absolutely gorgeous music. I loved my time in Birmingham and the friendships I made with people in the cast will last a lifetime. Thank you to everyone on the production, especially to the actors and singers of Birmingham who graciously devote themselves to this wonderful venture. 

I like how accessible Birmingham Opera Company’s shows are, that you have people coming who normally wouldn’t. If we want this art form to survive and thrive, we need to embrace everyone coming to the theatre. You don’t have to wear a ballgown or a suit. Just come, that’s the most important thing. (Pictured below: Lucas as Merlin) Telling a variety of familiar stories and new ones is an important component of bringing new people in. If there’s a community who sees their story represented on stage, maybe they’ll be more likely to come. Then they go, “Oh, this is opera! I thought opera was something else", and then maybe they’ll seek out another one.

Opera is about spectacle to some point but for me it’s about finding the emotional core of a story and being as honest as possible. That can touch people even if they don’t see themselves as an opera fan.

If I’m doing traditional repertoire and someone doesn’t look down at their programme and see my name, and they don’t notice that I’m trans, it doesn’t bother me. Advocacy is important but it doesn’t have to be on-stage. In fact it’s better off-stage. The jobs I’ve had that have been the easiest are where we just make art, when people don’t make it about gender. If it’s just a gender swap of a character, that can work, rather than trying to shoehorn something in about transition. But if I’m playing a character who is misunderstood, I feel my background can definitely help me. That can be really powerful.

Last year I premiered the opera Lili Elbe in St Gallen in Switzerland, about the Danish painter who was one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1930. I had spent five years working on it with Tobias Picker and librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman. We talked for hours and hours as I told them all about me and transition.

With Sylvia D'Eramo in a scene from Lili Elbe via OperaVision on YouTube

Playing Lili was very personal to me. A lot of experiences she had are experiences I had with my wife, contralto Ariana Lucas, and were what we went through too. One time Aryeh called me and said, “I need something for this scene, for the mother or the sister to show disapproval.” I thought of when one of my colleagues at the opera house in Karlsruhe, seeing me for the first time since I came out, said “I don’t like this.” Faced with that, there’s no discussion to be had, that’s the end of it. It’s pretty harsh.

With the rules of transition when I came out, I had to constantly prove myself over and over again to different doctors. But coming out when you are confident in yourself is easier. I tried for years growing up to be what other people wanted me to be, but the longer that goes on, the easier it is to say “No, I have already figured this out, you don’t get any say in this.”

I can’t say companies were immediately receptive to me coming out. Even my own company was like. “Has anyone done this before? How does this work? We engaged you as a baritone.” There were no openly trans opera singers performing.

If my voice changed and I wasn’t able to sing after transition, then fine. But my voice didn’t change and I carried on with my roles as before. Maybe it takes the make-up and costume departments a bit longer but it’s not a big deal for me to do my job. (Lucas pictured right by Josh New)

When I came out to my mom, who’s a feminist, she said, “Are you sure you want to make 70 cents on the dollar?” At the time I couldn’t have predicted that response, but looking back, it is kind of funny that her first response was about money.

When I came out in 2014, politics and general world acceptance felt more hopeful. Then Trump got elected and Brexit happened and things started spiralling. In the last two years LGBT people, and especially trans people, have become a political football. You can talk about a gender debate, but we are not debating gender, we are debating people’s lives and whether they can exist.

There are countries I won’t go to but it’s kind of wild to see countries that I go to all the time being so violent in their rhetoric about one per cent of the population. For people who are hurting, who are victims of austerity, do you really think that I’m your problem? I have nothing to do with your economic situation. I can also assure you that any trans person in a bathroom or changing room is doing their best to stay out of everyone’s way and be overly respectful, because we don’t want to cause a problem.

I hope that by being open and available through my email, I can personally make things easier for trans people. Some of my old opera teachers now have trans students and they talk with me. I have people who have reached out to me throughout the US and Europe. I like to point them in the right direction and be a hub of information.

• New Year ran at The Dream Tent, Birmingham, from 7 to 13 July. The cast featured Francesca Chiejina (Jo Ann), Sakiwe Mkosana (Donny), Sarah Pring (Nan), Lucia Lucas (Merlin), Joshua Stewart (Pelegrin) and Samantha Crawford (Regan), with Grace Durham and Oskar McCarthy as Presenters
• Lucia Lucas's website
• Read opera reviews on theartsdesk