Lili Elbe - Theater St.Gallen (2023) - Lili Elbe - Konzert und Theater St.Gallen (2023)

Description

Wordl Premiere.

"The world's first major opera about a transgender person opens in the renovated and expanded Great House. Lili Elbe is the latest work by Grammy-winning American composer Tobias Picker and librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman, commissioned by Konzert und Theater St. Gallen.
The opera Lili Elbe tells the story of the woman of the same name, Lili Elbe, who was married to the painter Gerda Wegener and had one of the first gender reassignment procedures carried out in the 1930s. Above all, Lili Elbe is the story of a great love that overcomes all obstacles and is therefore one of the great works of the opera repertoire. At the same time, the opera provides an insight into the life of a woman who was born with a body that was read as male, had her coming out and her transition at a time when gender reassignment surgery was still completely new territory and there were practically no role models. Lili Elbe is also a work about identity and the courage to do pioneering work.
The premiere will be staged across all genres by Krystian Lada, who has already staged Florencia en el Amazonas and Messa da Requiem in St. Gallen. The creative team for the first production in the Paillard building includes the heads of two departments: Modestas Pitrenas conducts Picker's score, whose music has influences from Mahler, Brahms, but also Stravinsky and Varèse, and Frank Fannar Pedersen designs the choreography. The St. Gallen dance company plays a special role and dance becomes an equal theatrical medium. Lucia Lucas is the singer in the title role. She has already celebrated great success as a heroic baritone at houses such as the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera Chicago and the English National Opera. She also worked as a dramaturg for the authors."

More information is available on the official website of the Theater.