Teiya Kasahara disrupts the opera world with The Queen in Me

The show, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa later this month, is designed for opera lovers but is eye-opening for a wider audience as it explores discrimination against trans, non-binary, female-identifying, queer and racialized people.

Published Sep 14, 2023 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 5 minute read

Teiya Kasahara disrupts the opera world The Queen in Me. Photo by DAHLIA KATZ /Handout

The Queen in Me

NAC English Theatre presentation of the Theatre Gargantua/Amplified Opera/Canadian Opera Company/Nightwood Theatre co-production
8 p.m., Sept. 20-30, Azrieli Theatre, National Arts Centre. Tickets at nac-cna.ca/en

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Canadian opera singer and interdisciplinary artist Teiya Kasahara (they/them) tackles the strict conventions of the opera world with the show, The Queen in Me, a Dora Award-nominated production that launches this year’s English theatre season at the National Arts Centre. It’s the first season curated by recently appointed artistic director, Nina Lee Aquino.

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In the show, the Japanese-Canadian soprano stars as the Queen, a powerful singer who suddenly stops the music to voice the frustrations that Kasahara has experienced over two decades as an opera professional.

With arias from some of the world’s most beloved operas, including La Bohème, Madama Butterfly and The Magic Flute, and accompaniment by pianist David Eliakis, the show is designed for opera lovers but it’s also eye-opening for a wider audience, over the recommended age of 13, as it explores discrimination against trans, non-binary, female-identifying, queer and racialized people.

In this interview, edited for length, Kasahara talks about falling in love with opera, discovering their voice and the challenges that led to the creation of The Queen of the Night.

Q: How did you get into opera?

A: I was 15 and taking a summer vocal workshop when I saw my first opera on film in a lecture hall at UBC (the University of British Columbia). It was the Magic Flute, which I based my character from The Queen in Me on, and I was hooked by all of these art forms coming together. All of these huge voices singing big, larger-than-life stories — I was blown away by what the human body can do. I just fell in love and thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to UBC to study opera.’

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Q: Did it surprise you when you discovered your voice?

A: I think so but it was also exciting. It wasn’t something that felt shocking. When I sang some of my first really high notes, I was very happily surprised, like ‘Hey, I can do that!’ Now that my voice has developed and I’ve studied with numerous teachers and evolved my technique, it feels really empowering to know I can produce these sounds. I feel like I’m letting the body do something it’s naturally inclined to do.

Q: You were a soccer-playing tomboy in your youth. Were you resentful of having such a high-pitched, ‘girlie’ voice?

A: That’s a complicated question. I think what’s difficult about having a voice that is typically gendered as feminine or female (is that) I very much view my voice as part of my transness. Even though my voice is soprano and I sing characters that are typically feminine, I feel proud and very rooted in my identity when people can understand that a soprano is not just a cisgendered female voice. It can be trans as well.

Q: You’ve been a professional opera singer for about two decades. What challenges did you face?

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A: Well, I guess the broad strokes are that this art form is Euro-centric. It stems from a culture that’s very European and white, and has become an upper-class, elitist art form, and with that comes this status quo culture of heteronormativity, cisgender representation, ableism, sizeism, ageism. I was feeling friction with all those things, being someone who is mixed race and was a huge athlete growing up. I quickly realized there were many unspoken rules and expectations that I had to conform to in order to succeed in this industry. That meant squashing down my truth and squashing down the time and energy to understand and express who I am. I came into my queerness later than most and came into my transness in my early 30s.

Q: How did the show originate?

A: I was in between singing contracts in Germany, and feeling the weight of the frustration, like I was constantly being pushed up against walls in terms of not feeling fully realized or fully authentic. So I was looking at some of the theatre industry postings about roundtable discussions and networking, and I reached out to (Toronto’s) Theatre Gargantua. I did an artistic internship with them and then a creators’ unit at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and it helped me produce the first draft.

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Q: What was your goal with it?

A: I wanted it to speak to my opera colleagues who have struggled like me, and the wider opera audience, and also just anyone who has struggled because of their identity or because of misogyny or sexism or racism. Even just being a woman is something I speak to in this show because that’s challenging in opera.

Teiya Kasahara disrupts the opera world with The Queen in Me. Photo by DAHLIA KATZ /Handout Q: When did Andrea Donaldson, your co-director and dramaturg, enter the picture?

A: She first read the script in January 2017. She wasn’t yet the artistic director of Nightwood Theatre, and I knew nothing about her and she knew nothing about opera. I think that’s why we really clicked. I had to explain and unpack every word that I wrote, and I think that’s why the text is so tight.

Q: Comedy is part of the show, too. How come?

A: I love to laugh, and with drama and tragedy and sadness, we need the levity and lightness, too. We need all of it to be in balance. We need to not take ourselves so seriously and that’s another comment on opera in general. We need to not take it so seriously so we can continue to evolve the canon so it includes more people making this art form.

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Q: You premiered the show in 2022 with the accompaniment of a conductor and a small orchestra. What’s the plan for the Ottawa run?

A: No orchestra, but we have the same pianist, David Eliakis, who’s my long-time collaborator and friend. It’s a really intimate show but I find this version, just piano and voice, allows for a lot of nuance to come out. David is an amazing pianist and he really fills the room. It feels very full and operatic and robust.

Q: How would you describe the connection you have with the character that you play on stage?

A: I feel like she is my best friend, the friend I never knew I needed. She’s like this older aunt figure. She stands up for me. She stops the opera. She literally ruins herself to advocate for me.

Q: Does it feel like you’re disrupting the opera industry?

A: I think so, for sure, but it’s not about burning it down because in the show, the queen goes on to say how much she loves opera, and how much this opera singer who is embodying her at this moment, loves opera. It’s complex, being able to love something so much at the same time it causes you pain and trauma. Opera is something I couldn’t walk away from, and that’s something I’ve wrestled with a lot over the years. Do I walk away from opera? But writing this show allowed me to stay. It allowed me to expand opera. It made room for me.