Lucas Bouk

Lucas Bouk is an American opera singer and actor from Rochester, New York.^[1] He^[a] came out in 2018 as a trans man, and played his first role as an openly trans man in a jazz opera character written with him in mind. A play about his transitioning was staged in 2018, and revived in 2019. In June 2019, he became the first openly transgender opera singer in a featured role written for a transgender singer in Stonewall.^[2]

Lucas Bouk grew up in Rochester, New York in a conservative environment, with "misunderstanding, misattunement, and pain" from his conflicted gender identity.^[1] He married his high school sweetheart when they were both 21.^[1]

Bouk studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.^[1] After graduate school Bouk and his husband had a child together.^[1] The pregnancy and birth were extremely difficult for Bouk: "I felt drowned and suffocated by cisgender parenting expectations. My son's existence wasn't the problem, it was all the social norms and expectations surrounding the idea of being a mother that plagued me with anxiety and anger."^[1] Bouk initially thought his anger towards casual sexual harassment and the word "mother" was due to being a "staunch feminist"; later the family would stop celebrating gendered holidays.^[1]

In 2014, Bouk made the decision to resign from his job and seek personal growth and professional advancement by relocating to Manhattan.^[1] Concurrently, he began engaging in yoga and participating in dance classes as a means to enhance his physical well-being and promote self-acceptance.

In September 2017, Bouk began to self-identify as a transgender man and came out to his husband, who was supportive.^[1]

In October 2018, Bouk took part in Bumble's worldwide campaign about New Yorkers "discussing their lives and loves."^[3]

Bouk began transitioning physically with testosterone and retraining as a baritone in 2021, stating that COVID-19 lockdowns gave him time to retrain that he had previously believed he would not have.^{[4] [5]}

Before coming out, Bouk sang a series of cabaret evenings featuring famous songs for female characters, by Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jason Robert Brown, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, to "become comfortable inhabiting female characters onstage that I might be able to feel more confident in my body in my actual life".^[6] Later he focused on female opera characters, “trapped by circumstance, society and gender”.^[6]

In May 2018, as part of New York's 2018 Opera Fest, he came out publicly as a trans man in a new opera, Tabula Rasa, a jazz-inspired work presented by the Cantanti Project,^[7] with music by gay composer Felix Jarrar and libretto by Bea Goodwin.^[1] The role of dadaist Tristan Tzara was created for Bouk so he could "publicly express [his] new gender identity".^[1] It was Bouk's first male role since coming out.^[1][8]

In November 2018, Bouk and Goodwin presented “Mr. Liz Cabaret: Living in the In Between," a coming of age story and cabaret about Bouk’s coming out process, at Alchemical Studio Lab.^[9] For the one-man show they used his journal entries, photos, paintings, and memories.^[9] It includes painful episodes of being misgendered.^[6] The show returned in February 2019 at New York City’s The Tank.

Following his one-man show, he did the transgender-themed As One at Alamo City Opera.^[10] As One is a newer opera which has already been performed around the world, telling the story with two characters, Hannah Before and Hannah After, who share insights into the transitioning experience.^[11] Bouk portrayed Hannah After.^[11]

He then performed in Giacomo Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi at St. Petersburg Opera.^[10] In May/June 2019 he reprised his role as Hannah Before in As One at Merkin Concert Hall for American Opera Projects and New York City Opera.^[12]

In June 2019, Bouk played a featured character in Stonewall, an opera about the 1969 Stonewall riots which had its world premiere in conjunction with Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019.^[13] Stonewall was commissioned by New York City Opera (NYCO), and features music by Iain Bell, a libretto by Mark Campbell, and direction by Leonard Foglia.^[2] Stonewall is the first opera to feature a transgender character written for a transgender singer.^[2] Bouk portrays Sarah, a trans woman celebrating the first anniversary of her transitioning.^[14]

Since August 2021, he has been performing as a baritone, including roles such as Masetto and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Schaunard in La bohème, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte.^[4] He also played the role of Hannah Before in As One in 2022 and 2023, making him the first person to portray both Hannah Before and Hannah After in As One.^[4]

• Castrato
• Cross-gender acting
• Feminist views on transgender topics
• List of historical opera characters
• List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender firsts by year
• Non-binary gender
• Transgender history
• Transgender rights in the United States