When Tobias Picker discovered the story of Lili Elbe, he recognised the kind of subject that would not let him go. Elbe is often remembered today as one of the first people to undergo gender-affirmation surgery. But he sensed an opera in the love story within that history, as Lili sought to live openly as herself in a world that had virtually no language for her experience. ‘An opera should only be written when the composer feels they absolutely have to write it’.
Lili Elbe, which receives its American premiere at Santa Fe Opera this summer, is based on the lives of Elbe (1882–1931), a Danish landscape painter, and fellow artist Gerda Wegener (1886–1940), an admired portraitist and leading figure of Danish Art Deco whose marriage to Lili becomes the opera’s emotional centre. Premiered at Theater St Gallen in Switzerland in 2023, where it received the OPER! Award for Best World Premiere, the opera now arrives in a new production directed by James Robinson, with the American-born, Germany-based trans baritone Lucia Lucas reprising the title role written for her.
