Alice has been supported using public funding by the National
Lottery through Arts Council England - www.artscouncil.org.uk
“This humorous, heart-warming overture presents us with a promising work-in-progress; a project that I would love to see come to fruition. Hopefully, d’Lumiere’s quest will lead to her returning to the festival in 2022 with a full show. Because of course, ‘the score isn’t settled until the Trans Lady Sings.’”
Alice d’Lumiere outlines her musical ups and downs before declaring her commitment to learn to sing in a year. She does so with disarming wit and with the help of poems, an impression or two and a burst of the Moonlight Sonata. Who knows what she – and Tête à Tête – might bring next year?
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT “Until the Trans Lady Sings”
2021 For the full Reviews, please head to our REVIEW PAGES
Beth Punnett,
Edward Bhesania, The Stage
“It was a captivating show... You were funny and engaging and honest. Brilliant!" - Rania
“You inspired me! Especially by the message; Try / Make attempts… Thanks for this wonderful, hopeful, intimate story.”
Monique
“This was lots of fun and funny too… There was also an inspiring message: if there's something you'd like to do, but you don't because you lack ability or think that's the case, doing it regardless is a rich and rewarding experience.”
Francis
Alice gets Operatic! Photograph Copyright © Tina Gooding 2022
THE PROJECT
I am a Spoken Word Artist, but I have always yearned to sing. Yet to me music seems terrifyingly stratified: Soprano, Contralto, Tenor, Bass; is the role you play always ordained by the limits of your vocal physiology? However, in the superficially respectable world of Opera, gender seems temptingly bendy; which can be very enticing to a gender-fluid person. Unfortunately I’d never been able to hold a note, in either gender...
I finally decided to try and overcome this frustrating childhood inhibition. With funding from Arts Council England’s “Developing Your Creative Practice” scheme I began attempting to challenge my perennial lack of skill in singing by training in - yes, you guessed it - Opera!
On the 2nd of August 2021 I performed a fun little 15 minute piece called "Until the Trans Lady Sings" at Tête à Tête: the Opera Festival 2021. I called it a "Spoken Word Overture" and it was intended as a curtain-raiser to a forthcoming year of training; using my existing spoken word skills set to explain the challenge I had set myself.
Do please check out the Tête à Tête website; they do amazing work and were both kind and brave enough to let me into their Festival! If you want to get a sense of where I began, please check out the You Tube video.
Over my DYCP year I received generous advice from some wonderfully knowledgeable and supportive people at The Royal Opera House and Britten Pears Arts, plus the practical help of some seriously talented singing teachers. But did I learn to sing? Well… Not to a professional standard, but enough progress was made to make me desperately yearn to carry on with learning opera and create a show about the experience.
The project remained in development until “The Trans Lady Sings” finally took to the stage at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2023 prior to beginning a national tour, supported once again, by Arts Council England.
I would like to thank everyone, particularly Tête à Tête for their amazing support and encouragement during this crazy adventure.” Alice d’Lumiere
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK ON “The Trans Lady Sings” 2023-24