Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice has received a queer update in a reimagining of the opera now on view at the National Opera Center. The production concept — set in present-day America among a gender-diverse community — is the work of director Scout Davis, scenic and video designer Diggle, costume designer Amelia Bransky, lighting designer Jocelyn Girigorie, drama­turg Melory Mirashrafi, and choreographer Eamon Foley.

The team is one of four winners of OA’s previous round of the Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize, awarded in 2021. (See p. 34 for the winners of the latest round.) With fund­ing from the prize, the group refined their production con­cept for presentation at Opera Conference 2022 last May and for the current exhibi­tion at the Opera Center.

Orfeo’s plot proves a potent analog for the grief, and ulti­mate happiness, experienced by many trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming individuals. “This commu­nity — particularly Black trans women, who live at the intersection of racism, sexism, and transphobia — embodies on a daily basis the tightrope walk of Orpheus existing in the underworld,” explains dramaturg Melory Mirashrafi. “Separated from loved ones time and again, looking backward for too long suddenly seems like a risk; however, despite carry­ing all that grief, there are such moments of joy in queer­ness, in gender euphoria, and in finding a community that sees you for who you are.”

The team envisions Eury­dice as the victim of a hate crime and her funeral as a vigil in a transit sta­tion. Amore acts a symbol of queer love, the Elysian Fields stand in for a queer utopia, and the opera’s final ballet is transformed into a block-party-like celebra­tion of both the living and the dead. All casting is fully gen­der-flexible, with the aim of spotlighting trans and gen­der-nonconforming voices.

The Orfeo production will be on view at the Opera Cen­ter through this winter. The remaining two win­ning teams will have their work featured in rotating exhibitions later this year.

The Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize is supported by the Tobin Theatre Arts Fund.