”A potent premiere… a multilayered work.”

“The transitional passages aren’t just connective, as they usually would be in an opera score… this gives the work a propulsive, ever-changing sound.”

“Singable melodies still abound, including D’Eramo’s aria “I See a Woman,” which can easily get stuck in a listener’s head”

“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. Brisk dance rhythms and rising figures catch the period’s appetite for motion and novelty; motoric patterns generate nervous energy beneath the dialogue. Solo wind lines rise above the ensemble like fine strokes of color catching the light, and passages evoking 1920s party music sparkle”

“The production could not have been bettered”

“A splendid new work of deep emotional charge… Picker’s music is intricate but full of dramatic propulsion”

"Lili Elbe is an opera that is relevant today and worthy of remounting...even though the titular lead must be sung by an artist who identifies as trans or non-binary, this is the story of a great love that overcomes all obstacles, a universal theme that runs through all the operatic repertoire.

Picker’s opera flows like a delicate work of music theater in two acts that builds towards an emotionally gripping apotheosis of death... Lucas not only makes Lili’s fate her own but allows her own fate to shine through. As directed by Krystian Lada, the narrative unfolds in a straightforward manner as an Art Nouveau-expressionist arc, amidst a bright, symbolist stage."

“An evening full of nightmares and hopes, with a fearless, always fascinating Lucia Lucas at the center, an iridescent experience, moving in its truthfulness.”

"A masterwork full of emotions.”

“With ‘Lili Elbe’ the opera has definitely arrived in the 21st century”

“Tobias Picker has found a tonal language and a musical narrative that plays with the familiar and thereby develops something new from the musical history we are familiar with - so there are no breaks in listening habits and yet a constant creative output, which - and this is also important - plays an active role in the narrative, instead of mixing a diffuse modern score with the typical diffuse sing-song of singing parts suspended between atonality and tonality the task of telling the story to the text alone and a sensible director. With his music, Picker creates time-spaces and moods that are able to evoke scenes, outline the concrete and the transcendental, almost without any additional hint; But above all, he succeeded in writing characterful vocal parts.”

"Picker's vocal lines always remain committed to melody, ariosi lead to large scenes with wonderful upswings and dramatic, self-aware arias. The psychedelic-tinged party at the Danish Countess is a bit of irresistible atmospheric musical theater. Modestas Pitrenas and the St.Gallen Symphony Orchestra demonstrate their stylistic versatility with a gripping interpretation of the score... This is great music!"