Openly transgender opera performers are scarce, and in a recent conversation with The Georgia Voice, Germany-based baritone Lucia Lucas admitted that she was initially nervous about how coming out would affect her career. But soon, she realized that not only was she helping to carve out a space for other trans artists to enter the world of opera, but she was presenting herself as a voice and identity that is largely underrepresented in the canon.
"There were some trans instrumentalists. I knew when I came out, if people had problems with people in the pits or behind the scenes, someone on the stage would be even more of a thing," Lucas recounted. "By coming out, I was ready to give up my career. But I said, 'I am going to fight for this — I am not going to roll over.'"
One of the first opera stars to come out as trans, Lucas soon embraced her identity as a part of her roles, playing the lead character, Hannah in the trans-focused production As One and and performing songs from operas that focus on uplifting society's minorities and enacting change.
In this episode of TRANScendent Sounds — GRAMMY.com's virtual series celebrating trans artists, while also bringing awareness to the ongoing social roadblocks faced by the trans community — Lucas performs "Demeter," a selection from The World's Wife, an opera by Tom W. Green.
The World's Wife borrows text from the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy, which tells the stories of forgotten women throughout history. According to classical music review site Planet Hugill, the composer — who has a background in electronic music and jazz — introduced loop pedals as a riff on the theme of amplifying the voices of unheard women.
In her performance of "Demeter," Lucas uses these loop pedals in order to amplify her powerful, crystalline baritone, and also to make it self-sufficient. With the use of the pedals, Lucas' voice serves as melody and accompaniment simultaneously, creating a layered world of sound through her vocals alone, with mesmerizing results.
Press play on the video above to get lost in Lucas' shimmering performance, and check back to GRAMMY.com next Wednesday, June 29 for another installment of TRANScendent Sounds.