Ken Howard
With stories and discussions of transgender identity gaining a firm foothold in popular culture, it was only a matter of time before we heard similar strains from the world of classical music and opera. Laura Kaminsky’s 2014 chamber opera As One was—if not the first—one of the first forays into such subject matter, and since its debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, it has been staged throughout the US, with performances in Colorado, California, Montreal, and Berlin.
During the 2016 OPERA America conference, Kaminsky explained she was inspired to compose an opera about a transgender person’s experience to explore two questions: “What is the core of a person? How do you find yourself and be yourself?”