The second living female composer to grace the great hall of the Liceo, Barcelona's Raquel García-Tomás, who was awarded the National Music Prize in 2020, brings the tragic destiny of Adélaïde Herculine Barbin (1838-1868) to the operatic stage inAlexina B.

Called Alexina by her parents, the heroine is an intersex person who, for the first time in history, has had her gender identity changed in France. Before committing suicide at the age of thirty, he/she left a written account of his/her short life entitled Mes souvenirs.

The autobiography, which attracted Michel Foucault's attention, was the subject of a study by the philosopher in 1978, when film director René Ferret brought the story of this fighting life to the screen in 1985 under the title Le mystère d'Alexina.

French writer and academician Irène Gayraud draws on these writings to create the libretto for the opera (in French with Catalan surtitles), which concentrates the most important moments in Alexina's life in three acts and twenty-two scenes: her meeting with Sara, daughter of the headmistress of the boarding school where she's a teacher, and her love-passion for her; her run-ins with medicine, church and jurisdiction, a whole heteronormative XIXᵉ century society that misunderstands her true gender mix and forces her to become a man (Abel Barbin) in order to marry the one she loves; without the change validated by the law la.Does he really know who he is? "I have suffered and suffered alone, abandoned by all", he writes before taking his own life at the age of thirty.

This is how the opera begins, in a virginal whiteness and a key of D minor, the highly symbolic key of requiems and other lamentos in history. Children (the voices of the chorus), including an angel, watch over the inanimate body of Abel Barbin, evoking through their chorus(Compagnons de la Marjolène) the happy days of the heroine's youth. With the arrival of the doctor and the policeman, we switch from white to green, the dominant color of the entire opera, that of institutions in the XIXᵉ century, director Marta Pazos tells us. Alexina/Abel's body, a hermaphrodite as it was known at the time, is to undergo an autopsy...

The flasback, as in the cinema, begins with Alexina's arrival at the institute where she will teach and meet Sara. The stage space is flexible, with sets descending from hangers and characters disappearing into trap doors, in a first act that seamlessly links the opera's first ten scenes. The numerous "curtain drops" in the following acts further fragment the narrative, which stretches out a little. The costumes (those of Silvia Delagneau) are period, and the outdoor scenes, in much stronger greens, remind us of the importance of nature in the XIXᵉ century. More interesting is the direction of the actors and the choreography of gestures(Maria Cabeza de Vaca) regulating the movements of the characters, whose stylization is not without evoking the manner of a Bob Wilson. The love scene between Sara and Alexina at the end of the first act is a great success, with the bed brought down from the ceiling and held vertically. Marta Pazos adds a touch of voluptuous understatement with the mute participation of the children in their own bed, whose movements counterpoint this slow ascent to orgasm, the only moment of orchestral plenitude on a par with Wagnerian ecstasy. 

The context of the XIXᵉ century and its colors (those of Franz Liszt as well as Jules Massenet) are also very prominent in Raquel García-Tomás ' score, which wavers between tonality and blurring of pitches, instrumental sources and noisy instances of electronics : music of the in-between, interstylistic one might say, that joins the libretto's themes and closely serves the dramaturgy: such as the stormy manifestations that recur several times, a metaphor, it seems, for the heartbreak felt in the heroine's body. Only 17 instruments are installed in the pit, under the masterful direction of Spanish conductor Ernest Martinez-Izquierd.

In this chamber orchestra deprived of low brass, the piano and harp are particularly active, with their ascending spirals aimed at the high registers of the instruments, which are sometimes relayed by electronics. This attraction to the light felt throughout the opera is fulfilled in the songs of the nun Hildegard von Bingen heard at the end of each act. These moments of grace are conveyed by the voices of the superbly prepared children (Vivaldi Choir-Petits chanteurs de Catalunya), opening up the boundless spaces that Abel calls for in his final aria.

With the exception of a few masculine intonations from Alexina/Abel, reminiscent of her intersex status, there are no low tessituras among the voices either, but the judicious and oh-so-ambiguous choice of countertenor for all the male roles (Doctor Goujon, Doctor H., the Abbé, Monseigneur, the Judge) played with great ease and nuance, between brutality and benevolence, by Xavier Sabata. Alexina B. is first and foremost an opera for the voice, with the orchestra often playing a supporting role. The vocalism, too, swings between text-driven declamation, in a highly meticulous prosody, and a more lyrical dimension that extends to full-blown arias in the second and third acts. Present on all fronts (The Policeman, Madame P., Mother of Alexina and Sister Marie of the Angels), soprano Elena Copons is a long, warm, well-stamped voice that triggers applause (as in the XIXᵉ century!) after this bravura aria in which she expresses her unfailing love to her daughter. A light soprano full of freshness, Mar Esteve accumulates small roles, that of Alexina as a child, Lea, a convent child and a boarding school student. The sensitive, flexible soprano of Spain's Alicia Amo, who takes on the character of Sara, is equally seductive. As for the title role, entrusted to the French mezzo Lidia Vinyes-Curtis, it is overwhelming, demanding because of its tessitura deviations, and superbly defended by the singer whose stage aplomb rivals her vocal ease. Her final monologue, interspersed with silence, as she bids farewell to Sara and her mother, hints at a true tragic dimension.

Michèle Tosi

Raquel García-Tomás (born 1984) : Alexina Bopera in three acts and 22 scenes, libretto by Irène Gayraud, based on the testimony of Adélaïde Herculine Barbin; staging by Marta Pazos; stage design by Max Glaenzel; costumes by Silvia Delagneau; choreography by Maria Cabeza de Vaca; lighting by Nuno Meira; video by Raquel García-Tomás. Lidia Vinyes-Curtis, mezzo-soprano, Alexina Barbin / Abel Barbin; Alicia Amo, soprano, Sara; Elena Copons, soprano, The Policeman, Madame P., Alexina's Mother, Sister Mary of the Angels; Mar Esteve, Alexina as a child, Léa, convent child, boarding school student; Xavier Sabata, countertenor, Docteur Goujon, The Doctor, Doctor H., L'abbé, Monseigneur, Le Juge; Chœur Vivaldi-IPSI-Petits chanteurs de Catalunya, convent students, boarding school students; Liceo Symphony Orchestra; conductor Ernest Martinez-Izquierdo.

Photos © Toni Bofill