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This season, Santa Fe Opera presents the American Premiere of Lili Elbe in a new production, with performances through August 27, 2026. Click here to purchase tickets.
"An iridescent experience, moving in its truthfulness"
— Egbert Tholl, Süddeutsche Zeitung
"A timely and relevant opera that deserves to be widely performed."
— Manuel Brug, Die Welt
"The librettist Aryeh Lev Stollman has condensed the extraordinary story of its protagonist into an opulent picture arc . . . With Lili Elbe opera has definitely arrived in the 21st century."
— Anna Kardos, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
"Tobias Picker's Lili Elbe, which is having its American premiere at the Santa Fe Opera this season, is a multilayered work. Aryeh Lev Stollman's skillfully crafted libretto is based on the story of the trans Danish landscape painter who began to live openly as a woman in the 1910s and died in 1931."
— Heidi Waleson, The Wall Street Journal
"In Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman's Lili Elbe, a marriage changes faster than either partner can comprehend ... The opera draws on the lives of Einar and Gerda Wegener, a married pair of early 20th-century Danish artists. As the story unfolds, Einar comes to understand herself and live openly as Lili Elbe. Stollman centers that narrative on Lili's painful process of self-understanding and acceptance, alongside what Lili's transformation means for Gerda and the life they have built together ... Picker's score sustains this intertwined drama with assurance, at times expanding into passages of transporting lyricism."
— Thomas May, Musical America
Lili Elbe
Opera in two acts
by Tobias Picker
Libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman
Dramaturg Lucia Lucas
World Premiere: October 22, 2023, at Theater St. Gallen, Switzerland.
American Premiere: August 1, 2026, at Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US.
Schott Music Corporation & European American Music Distributors Company
Synopsis:
LILI ELBE is an opera in two acts based on the life of Lili Elbe (1882-1931), one of the first persons to undergo gender affirmation surgery. Lili, 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 considered the Danish pioneer of Art Deco and a sought-after portraitist.
Lili's first appearance in public (Santa Fe Opera, 2026, photo by Bronwen Sharp)
Lili and Gerda in Paris apartment (Santa Fe Opera, 2026, photo by Bronwen Sharp)
Lili and Gerda in Les Deux Magots café, Paris (Santa Fe Opera, 2026, photo by Bronwen Sharp)
"An Opera of Transitions for a Trans Pioneer", New York Times article by Max Keller.
Lili Elbe named "Best World Premiere of 2023" at the OPER! AWARDS 2024 ceremony. The OPER! AWARDS are Germany's only international opera prize, presented annually to the most outstanding creative talents in the global opera industry, chosen by a jury of music journalists.
Poplars at Hobro by Lili Elbe
Lili Elbe by Gerda Wegener
Sylvia D'Eramo as Gerda Wegener (Photo by Edyta Dufaj)
Lucia Lucas as Lili Elbe (Photo by Edyta Dufaj)
(From left) Mack Wolz as Anna Larssen Bjørner and Sylvia D’Eramo as Gerda Wegener (Photo by Edyta Dufaj)
Click to read UM!SCHAU on Lili Elbe (934K PDF)
Click to read SRF on Lucia Lucas and Lili Elbe
'Awakenings' is the stuff of dreams . . . It's probably too soon to declare Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman's 'Awakenings' a modern classic, but it could become one given the opportunity.
The Boston Globe, A.Z. Madonna, February 27, 2023
Awakenings
Opera in Two Acts
by Tobias Picker
Libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman
Based on the book by Dr. Oliver Sacks
World Premiere: June 5, 2022, at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Director: James Robinson; Conductor: Roberto Kalb.
East Coast Premiere: February 25, 2023, Odyssey Opera in partnership with Boston Modern Orchestra. Director: James Robinson; Conductor: Gil Rose at the newly renovated Huntington Theater.
Schott Music Corporation & European American Music Distributors Company
Synopsis:
AWAKENINGS is based on Dr. Oliver Sacks' acclaimed 1973 book, which relates his astonishing work with victims of the great sleeping-sickness pandemic of 1916-1927, Encephalitis Lethargica. Although millions died during the pandemic, many thousands lived on to be left “frozen,” like living statues, often locked away in hospital wards, forgotten and “asleep.” In the late 1960s, Sacks recognized that real lives were trapped inside these forlorn bodies. By experimenting with the wonder drug L-DOPA used to treat Parkinson’s, he began to bring these patients back into being— real people who had lost decades of their lives.
Jarrett Logan Porter as Dr. Sacks
Photo by Kathy Wittman, Ball Square Films
Opening scene
Photo by Kathy Wittman, Ball Square Films
Adrienne Danrich and Joyce El-Khoury as Miriam and Rose
Photo by Kathy Wittman, Ball Square Films
Read the New Yorker on Awakenings, "Oliver Sacks Gets an Opera": https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/02/27/oliver-sacks-gets-an-opera
Review: "Awakenings is the stuff of dreams" by A.Z. Madonna in The Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/27/arts/awakenings-is-stuff-dreams/?event=event12
Review: "Awakenings, Harvey Milk and Carmen: Two Poignant Premiers and an Old Favorite" by Heidi Waleson in The Wall Street Journal: click to read the PDF