Bright Shiny Things Releases Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe, the World’s First Grand Opera about a Transgender Historical Figure, Performed by Lucia Lucas

BRIGHT SHINY THINGS RELEASES COMPOSER TOBIAS PICKER’S LILI ELBE, THE WORLD’S FIRST GRAND OPERA ABOUT A TRANSGENDER HISTORICAL FIGURE AND PERFORMED BY A TRANSGENDER OPERA SINGER

Baritone Lucia Lucas featured in title role

NEW YORK, NY–On July 31, 2026, Bright Shiny Things releases Lili Elbe, composer Tobias Picker’s two-act opera based on the life of the title character, a Danish landscape painter who was one of the first people to undergo gender affirmation surgery. The libretto for Lili Elbe was written by Aryeh Lev Stollman, a novelist and neuroradiologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City who also collaborated with Picker on the opera Awakenings. Marking the world’s first grand opera about a transgender historical figure and performed by a transgender opera singer, Lili Elbe was recorded live during its dress rehearsal and world premiere on October 22, 2023 in Switzerland’s Theater St. Gallen, with the release timed to coincide with the U.S. premiere of the opera in a new production at Santa Fe Opera on August 1, 2026. Picker and Stollman’s Lili Elbe is based on historical sources, including Lili Elbe’s own writings. The opera was named “Best World Premiere of 2023” at the OPER! AWARDS in Amsterdam. Both productions star baritone, Lucia Lucas in the title role, and she is joined on the recording by soprano Sylvia D’Eramo, who also reprises the role of Gerda Wegener in Santa Fe; Mack Wolz; Jennifer Panara; Brian Michael Moore; Sam Taskinen; Msimelelo Mbali; Kristján Jóhannesson; Theo Imart; and David Maze. Lithuanian conductor Modestas Pitrenas leads the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, and Chor des Theaters St. Gallen is directed by Franz Obermair.

Lili Elbe is available for pre-order here.

Lili Elbe (1882-1931), before transition, was known as the acclaimed Danish landscape painter Einar Wegener. Lili was happily married to Gerda Wegener (1886-1940), herself an important artist who pioneered the Art Deco style in Denmark and was a sought-after portraitist.
 
The story begins when Lili, at the time still known as Einar Wegener, is asked to pose as the actress Anna Larsen of the Royal Danish Theater, when the latter is unable to come to the last sitting for the portrait being painted by Einar’s wife Gerda. At the sitting, Lili is brought to a profound self-discovery, never before acknowledged. Larsen has just premiered the role of Orpheus in a new play, and the opera draws a parallel between that story and Lili’s dilemma. Lili is both Orpheus and Eurydice, compelled to never again turn away from her true self.
 
Lili is supported by Gerda, their friends Eric and Hélène, and Lili’s brother Marius, though she encounters hostility from her sister Dagmar. Marius introduces her to Professor Warnekros, who agrees to operate on her at the Municipal Women’s Clinic in Dresden and help her fully live her life as a woman. After her first surgery, through a dramatic encounter with the King of Denmark, she receives a royal decree confirming her gender identity and dissolving her marriage to Gerda.
 
As a pioneer of gender affirmation surgery, Lili endures the terrible pains and dangers of the more limited and experimental medical science of her time, ultimately dying from complications after a second surgery. During this journey both Lili and Gerda find temporary love, Lili with the perfumer Claude LeJeune, and Gerda with the Italian Major Fernando Porta, who will squander her money and leave her in poverty. Lili and Gerda, together at the end, declare their everlasting love for each other, which has never altered. 

ABOUT TOBIAS PICKER AND ARYEH LEV STOLLMAN

Tobias Picker, born in New York City in 1954, has been described by The Wall Street Journal as “our finest composer for the lyric stage” and by BBC Music Magazine as displaying “a distinctively soulful style that is one of the glories of the current musical scene.”
 
His operas include Emmeline (Santa Fe Opera), Fantastic Mr. Fox (LA Opera), Thérèse Raquin (Dallas Opera), An American Tragedy (Metropolitan Opera), Dolores Claiborne (San Francisco Opera), Awakenings (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis), and Lili Elbe (Konzert und Theater St. Gallen). His eighth opera, Safe Haven, is scheduled to premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2027.
 
Picker’s catalog also features three symphonies; concertos for violin, viola, cello, oboe, and piano—most notably his Piano Concerto No. 2, Keys to the City, commissioned by the City of New York for the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial; a ballet; and the tone poem, Old and Lost Rivers. His chamber music comprises numerous works, including two string quartets and two piano quintets. His orchestral music has been performed by major ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic and the orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia, as well as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Tonhalle -Orchester Zürich. Fantastic Mr. Fox (BMOP Sound) received the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
 
Tobias Picker’s music is published exclusively by Schott.
 
Author and librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman writes at the intersection of literature, music, and medicine. He has written three librettos for composer Tobias Picker: Awakenings, commissioned by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) and premiered in 2022; Lili Elbe, commissioned by Theater St. Gallen and premiered in 2023; and Safe Haven, scheduled to premiere at OTSL in 2027.
 
Stollman’s first novel, The Far Euphrates (Riverhead/Penguin Putnam Inc.), received the Lambda Literary Award and was named an American Library Association Notable Book and a National Book Critics Circle Notable Book. The New York Times Book Review described it as “radiant” and “remarkable,” citing its understated prose and construction. The novel has been translated into multiple languages, including German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Hebrew.
 
His second novel, The Illuminated Soul (Riverhead), received Hadassah Magazine’s Harold U. Ribalow Prize. The Boston Globe called it “an admirable novel of ideas.” It has also been translated into several languages. His short fiction has appeared in The Yale Review, Story, American Short Fiction, and The Southwest Review. His collection The Dialogues of Time and Entropy was published in 2003, the same year he received the inaugural Chaim Potok Literary Award.
 
His story "Lotte Returns!" was commissioned and broadcast by National Public Radio. His third novel, Queen of Jerusalem, was published in 2020 by Aryeh Nir/Modan in Hebrew translation under the title ???? ??? ????.
 
Stollman is a neuroradiologist at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. 

For more information, please contact: Paula Mlyn, paula@a440arts.com
Production Photo Credits: ©Edyta Dufaj