Opera Trans*formed

“If I wasn’t an opera singer, would I be a trans man?” asks Teiya Kasahara, a gender non-binary singer, partway through the film. It’s a dilemma facing gender non-binary and trans singers working in a field whose roles are rigidly defined along gender lines: sopranos and mezzos are cast as women (so-called “trouser roles” aside); tenors and basses as men. Teiya Kasahara (they/them) leads a new generation of trans* opera performers, activists and self-proclaimed “shit-disturbers” making their voices heard–whether the classical music world likes it or not.