The Bridge and the Breaker

for medium voice and piano

2017 / 2021

An aria from the middle of my chamber opera Dame, Not Lady, as part of the University of Colorado's New Opera Workshop in 2016.

The last time Dame saw their mother, they were getting kicked out of the house for dating a girl. It's 10 years later and Dame's mother doesn't have much longer to live. Dame must decide whether or not to tell their mom that they're genderqueer. Through a journey of memories, "Dame, Not Lady" is an opera about the need to be witnessed and how much should be sacrificed for another’s comfort. 

At this point in the opera, Dame grapples with coming into understanding with their identity, not having been given language to describe themselves or make sense of the nonbinary feelings they’re having.

2022 performance by Tessa Romano and Terence Denis at the University of Otago, Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand, September 2022.


Text:

No one told me what it means. 
It wasn’t about the clothes. 
Felt like there was some secret I was keeping. 
Boy—
Girl—
      couldn't made sense. 
Who am I allowed to be?

My love's unrequited for that shadow of a boy 
who got swallowed 
in the dress I had to wear. 
The boy I want to suffocate. 

It’s easier to check a box 
than to live outside it. 
They want you to choose. 
Who will tell me what this means?

We are the shapeshifters
walking between the worlds
Shapeshifters
Walking between the worlds
around them, through them.

The bridge and the breaker
The bridge and the breaker.

Who will tell me what this means? 
What this means.