Review: LILI ELBE at Santa Fe Opera

Lili Elbe

Santa Fe Opera August 1, 5, 14, 18, 27 American Premiere

https://www.santafeopera.org/tickets/

Each year, the Santa Fe Opera presents an impressive 5 operas over a 2-month period each summer. Every week of July a new opera premieres and the productions are shown in repertory. Each season has a variety of tried and true, obscure pieces and a world or American premiere. This year, the American premiere is Lili Elbe, with music by Tobias Picker and text by Aryah Lev Stollman.

The piece is based on the true story of Einar Wegener, a Danish painter married to Gerda, also a painter. Over the course of the opera, Einar transitions into Lili Elbe (Lucia Lucas) and is legally declared a woman. She wrote about her transition (with the help of Niels Hoyer) in the book Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex. Elbe’s surgeries are considered to be among the first gender-affirming surgeries on record. Her story is also told in the film The Danish Girl, for which Eddie Redmayne earned an Oscar nomination.

The opera begins in Denmark, where Gerda (Sylvia D’Erano) and Einar attend a production of Orpheus and Euridice. The woman playing Orpheus (Lindsay Martin) is Gerda’s model for a series of paintings. When she does not show up for a modeling session, Gerda encourages Einar to wear her robe and pose as a woman for the portrait. Einar obliges and has a revelation that he has been living a lie and living in the wrong body – he is actually a woman.

This is the thing that makes me a little crazy when it comes to opera – this revelation appears to come out of nowhere, as if it just popped into Einar’s mind the minute he put on the robe. A little more character development here would have been more sensitive to the material and also more accurate to the trans experience.

When Lili debuts at a society party, all the men seem to fall at her feet. Gerda thinks this is just Einar playing a game with her, and is yet to realize the deeper change that is happening. The lavish costuming, especially of the women in this scene, is beautiful, thanks to Costume Designer Marco Piemontese. All, that is, except Lili Elbe – but maybe she’s just too new to the women’s clothing thing, this should get better over the course of the opera, right?

Unfortunately, this is Lili’s look for the entirety of the opera, until she has surgery. This was a disappointing choice, especially given the lavish and luxe look of the rest of the cast. It’s hard to believe Lili is turning heads in her dowdy purple church dress.

Lili and Gerda make plans to move to Paris, which will be a “more modern” place that will be more accepting than Copenhagen about Lili’s transition. At a party in Paris, where Lili is introduced as Einar’s sister, one man in particular, Claude LeJeune (Josh Lovell), falls for Elbe on first sight (another thing that makes me kind of crazy when it comes to opera) and invites her to take a walk with him in the Tuleries the next day. Lili accepts and Claude declares his love for her (too soon!).

Lili’s brother Marius (Ryan Wolfe) and sister Dagmar (Lauryn Davis) come to visit and Lili reveals her transition to them. Marius is sympathetic and tells Lili that he will introduce her to Professor Kurt Warnekos (Andrew Harris), a gynecologist and surgeon who can help her change her sex.

Lili and Gerda decide to part as spouses, so that Lili can live her life fully. There remains a strong bond and connection between them, even when Gerda remarries to a pretty “unwoke” man, Major Fernando Porta (Joshua Klein), who keeps saying that Lili is “not a real woman,” and everybody seems pretty OK with not correcting him. Lili is now free to marry Claude, who I guess figured out her transness, or maybe her knew it all along – we don’t know as the audience, because it was never addressed.

Lili goes on to have several surgeries, a bad round of X-rays that burn her (all of this in hindsight, the actual reveal of her scarred body was a big surprise, as the first surgeries are never addressed during the opera) and eventually has a uterus implanted so she can have children, the surgery that actually becomes her end, she dies of surgical complications and the opera ends.

There’s a lot of potential here, but the piece feels like it’s not finished. It needs more character development throughout, including some more exposition as to why Orpheus and Euridice keep popping up throughout the production – are they saying that Gerda is Orpheus and needs to trust that Lili (Euridice) will find her way to the other side? Or is the myth referring to the two sides of Lili, male and female, and if she will make a successful journey, finally living in a body that matches her gender? Not clear to us, but an interesting thing to think about after the show.

On the vocal side, there are some beautiful moments, especially from D’Eramo and Lucas, as well as the ensemble. The volume of the singers was spotty at times from our close proximity to the stage, so I imagine it might have been more difficult to hear in the mezzanine or balcony.

The sets are beautiful, moving from grey box to opulent opera house, French apartments, surgical theaters and more. Very nice work by Scenic Designer Allen Moyer and his staff, as well as excellent calling/running of the show, as it had many moving ramps, doors, and set pieces.

The lighting (Lighting Design by Marcus Doshi) is excellent as well, as are the video projections that flicker like memories along the back of the set (Greg Emetz, Video and Production Design).

In all, the production left me wanting more, which actually made me do a deeper dive on the history before writing my review.  That’s not a bad thing; productions that leave you wanting more usually allow you to look for more.

That said, Picker and Stollman’s work is solid, but could use more character development and backstory – everything needs to be on that stage, not in the synopsis or in other sources. This piece could, and should strive for more.

Lili Elbe is playing in repertory August 5, 14, 18 and 27.

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