Soprano Lucy Shelton has premiered more than 100 new works in a decades-long career as a concert and recital artist. "I haven't spent my time as an opera singer," Shelton, 80, explained in a video chat last month. "I preferred vocal chamber music, and mostly new music where I worked with living composers." But this week, Shelton will do something she has only done once before in her long, decorated career: premiere an opera. She stars in Lucidity by composer Laura Kaminsky and librettist David Cote, in a debut production presented by On Site Opera that opens tonight and runs through Saturday at New York City's Abrons Arts Center.
Signing on to Lucidity was an easy decision for Shelton thanks to her longtime friendship with Kaminsky, which dates back to the 1980s. "Laura wanted to write something for me," Shelton explained. In 2019, Kaminsky encouraged Shelton to put on a 75th birthday recital at New York City's Merkin Hall. "I thought that might be the last time I would perform on stage," Shelton recalled. "The fact that I still get to do this is scary but brings me so much joy."
The plot of Lucidity revolves around Lili, a former opera singer struggling with memory loss. "I'm the same age as the character," Shelton acknowledged with a laugh. "Anytime I forget anything in my daily life, I just think, 'Well, I'm just practicing my part.' " In October, Shelton spoke with NPR alongside Kaminsky, Cote and her castmate mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert, who plays Dr. Klugman, a neuroscientist who abandoned a burgeoning career as a singer for a more certain professional path. The rest of Lucidity's cast of four includes baritone Eric McKeever, who plays Lili's adopted son Dante, and soprano Cristina Mar铆a Castro, who plays Sunny, a clarinetist Dr. Klugman hires to provide Lili music therapy.
Kaminsky, 68, also relates to the characters in Lucidity. "I was kind of Dr. Klugman in reverse because I was a psychology major, but I just wanted to write music," she observed. Kaminsky's active, international career as a chamber music composer changed forever in 2014 when she broke into the world of contemporary opera with As One. Written with librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed, As One is based on Reed's life and tells the story of a transgender woman's journey to self-acceptance. The opera became a stalwart, and has been produced over 60 times in the United States since its premiere. Lucidity is Kaminsky's seventh opera, and all of these follow As One's lead in telling topical, realistic stories about individual self-discovery and the relationships between people.
Librettist David Cote initially approached Kaminsky in 2014 after seeing a production of As One at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. "I thought, 'Laura has a beautiful compositional voice'," Cote recalled, "and As One was a very lyrical, concise and direct emotional expression of opera that I wanted to be a part of." Kaminsky added, "I didn't really know him and his work, but then, in 2015, I saw his opera The Scarlet Ibis [composed by Stefan Weisman] and I thought that the storytelling was evocative and compelling."
It took time for the pair to arrive at the story that would become Lucidity. "David came to me with multiple ideas for grand operas," Kaminsky explained, "but creatively, I live in a very intimate world." Kaminsky's operas usually feature small casts, a handful of instruments and relatable stories that invite the audience into the narrative. As she explained, "For me, the idea of a personal story was crucial 鈥� if David and I couldn't get there, we weren't going to work together." The duo found the seed for Lucidity's plot in their shared grief, as Cote and Kaminsky both lost loved ones to extended illnesses around the time their collaboration began. "A