Lucia is comfortable switching between the male and female roles, even portraying some of the roles presenting in a different gender than Mozart planned. The artistic choices made for this opera are exciting and deliver a constant flow of fun surprises. The production set the opera in the 1950s, for one change, and then featuring Lucia as Don Giovanni brings an uncommon freshness to an old standard show. I feel certain Mozart would approve, as he was comfortable with bold choices.
Opera is now considered a high society diversion for wealthy stuffed shirts, but it wasn’t always so, and shouldn’t be. As was theater at Shakespeare’s Globe, opera was popular entertainment at its beginning. Tulsa’s production of Don Giovanni strips away the pretense and artifice and brings the story back to a place where everyone can thrill to the misdeeds of the most infamous libertine.
“You will need a minute to process what you see and hear…”
Behind the scenes, we learn the extraordinary story of how Lucia pursued her dreams of opera, and then of gender transition. She carries the label of “diva” in the best way: strong, driven, relentless, and willing to do what needs doing to meet a goal. She carries the power of Giovanni in her approach to the world. We also learn that Tobias Picker had his own challenges, growing up with Tourette’s Syndrome before it was well known or understood.
Kicklighter tells this story cinematically, capturing the drama of the opera, and the story of how this show came to be and what it means, in rich light and color, and bombastic music, bringing it all to life in the spirit of the art that grounds it. By the time you make it to the end of the documentary, you’ve put aside your initial startled reaction at a trans woman who can shake the pillars of heaven, vocalizing a famously male opera role. You see Lucia, Tobias, and the cast and crew of the opera as simply people, as the incredible artists that they are. That’s the point, and that’s how it should be. Lucia has kicked down this barrier with style and power. The Sound of Identity is one facet of infinite diversity in infinite combinations.
"…put aside your initial startled reaction at a trans woman who can shake the pillars of heaven..."
