Here's an opera about the coming-of-age of a transgender woman. I think it's important for opera to engage with contemporary issues. It's a short piece; only seventy-five minutes, and it only features two singers: the main character--Hannah--as a man and as a woman. It hits kind of the beats that you'd expect in a story like this: the main character realizing that they like dressing as a woman, learning about the very existence of transgender people and reading up on it, having a flirtation (as a woman) with a guy, narrowly escaping transphobic violence, and then taking a trip to Iceland (okay, that's probably not a common transgender trope) to deal with her feelings in isolation. In the end, she feels whole.
In spite of not having any huge surprises, the story works, for me. I like it. On a personal note (it's my blog, so I can make it All About Me if I want), I am proud of the fact that I've never harbored any transphobic sentiment, in spite of not really being aware of the concept particularly until sometime in adulthood (I couldn't even say when). For a lot of people, being presented with something new as an adult can lead to phobia, so I'm doing well in that regard. I'll admit, however, that I'm definitely not as knowledgable as I could be about transgender issues, and how these things really work. Sure, I watch Contrapoints videos, but that's as far as it goes. However, I will say--in, perhaps, mild criticism of this piece: the way Hannah finds piece is by reconciling the male and female parts of her ("as one"), whereas my understanding--and I know everyone's different--is that that's not how trans people normally think of themselves: if you're a trans man you're a man; if you're a trans woman you're a woman. Anyone who knows more can feel free to educate me.
You can watch it here, if you want. American Opera Project, same as Harriet Tubman. This is a chamber opera. Now, that's a very broad category, without one specific definition: it can involve anything from a small orchestra to a single piano. Here, the entirety of the musical accompaniment is a string quartet, right up there on stage. I have to be honest: I like a bigger sound. In large doses, string quartets tend to bore me a little, and that was the case here, too. But that probably would've been more of an issue if the opera had been longer; as it is, I was glad to see it, and maybe you should too.
The “as one” thing could be about something I know trans folk can sometimes struggle with, namely reconciling who they were with who they are — finding a balance where they don't feel like the memories of the however-many-years of their life before they transitioned are irreparably soiled by having been from the perspective of the wrong gender, as it were.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it could alternatively be that Hannah's journey is intended to read as her realizing that she's not a straightforward woman, but rather genderqueer/nonbinary to some extent. I don't know.
At any rate, one thing I can tell you is that while it's not a big deal or anything, most trans folk I know would rather be referred to as "a trans man" or "a trans woman" than as "transman" or "transwoman", as those words kinda imply that "a transman" is different from just "a man" rather than "trans" being an adjective appended to "man".
Fair enough; edits made.
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