There is a color that is part of shared memory, although it often goes completely unnoticed. It is that green of the desks, contemplated for so many hours over the years, also present in hospitals, courthouses, prisons... A green that institutionalizes the subjects of a society, or so Marta Pazos, in charge of the production of Alexina B., the new opera by Raquel García-Tomás, the first Catalan composer to premiere at the Liceu, has wanted to see it.
That cold and elusive color invades almost every scene, becoming another character and representing all those who will oppress Adélaïde Herculine Barbin, the first documented testimony of an intersex person. When she was born, she was assigned the female gender and raised as a girl. As a teenager, she saw her body not developing like the rest of her schoolmates, never having her period and suffering terrible pains. After various medical examinations, a court ruling allowed her to change sex and she adopted the name Abel. She also did not find her place in society as a man and ended up committing suicide shortly before turning 30.
Few characters manage to escape that desk green that Marta Pazos has painted. The girls who accompany the protagonist do, when she is little and, later, as a governess, a children's choir in charge of Cor Vivaldi-Petits Cantors de Catalunya that brings spontaneity and tenderness to a harsh story. Alexina herself, a role played by mezzo-soprano Lidia Vinyes-Curtis, escapes social pressure at some point, with a dress that, despite being green, is warmer. Sara, Alexina's great love interpreted by soprano Alicia Amo, also dresses more vibrantly, often an exact reflection of her joys and sufferings, sharing the key moment of the opera, the longest scene, with sex transforming physical and emotional ecstasy into musical.
In a suffocating greenish environment, accompanied by apt lighting and precise decor in which no element is superfluous and blends with the characters, the life of Alexina, later Abel, is narrated, marked by suffering and anguish that clash with the indifference and censorship of French society in the mid-19th century. Irène Gayraud has written the libretto based on her memoirs, titled Mes souvenirs (My Memories), first published in Paris in 1874 and recovered by Michael Foucault a century later. Gayraud wanted to reflect her way of expressing herself, as well as that of the forensic doctors who studied her body when she died, with an exhaustive portrait of the coldness with which they treated her, sung by countertenor Xavier Sabata. By the way, García-Tomás calls for the re-edition of Herculine Barbin's memoirs, out of print in Spanish and never published in Catalan.
The librettist has also opted to give the text currency, aware of the demands of intersex people today, as García-Tomás has also done with the score, conceived for a reduced ensemble of instruments finally conducted by Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo and not by Josep Pons. The Barcelona-based composer mixes references to Franz Liszt and Hildegard von Bingen to show the religious reality of the time with electronic music. Even cinematic effects are incorporated, with flashbacks and movie storms. García-Tomás has even ventured into videocreation, drawing digital forests that serve as a stage and provide dynamism.
With Alexina B., García-Tomás (National Music Award 2020) has become the second female composer to premiere her opera at the Liceu and the first Catalan to do so, a title that does not concern her too much. The Barcelona native prefers to focus on intersex people taking the stage in a space with as much visibility as the theater on La Rambla, something she believes is not common, neither at the Liceu nor in other opera houses or theater venues. In fact, it is the first Spanish opera to give a voice to an intersex person as the protagonist. A respectful and contemporary approach that earned her a standing ovation from the audience at its premiere, which will be followed by three more performances until Wednesday. Undoubtedly, one of the successes of the season, giving opera an opportunity to approach and move new audiences by slowly cooking realistic female orgasms and unmasking gender binarism.