Queer Opera, a platform for sexual diversity, popular music, and lyrical singing
The artistic project of twins Luchi and Ferni de Gyldenfeldt, Ópera Queer, arrived on the Buenos Aires theater scene to expand the boundaries of a traditionally binary genre. Self-management is an option to ensure no one is left out.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. “And the award goes to… Queer Opera !” announced the host of the Estrella de Mar awards ceremony. Twins Ferni and Luchi de Gyldenfeldt, creators of the show, took a moment to hug before running onto the stage to accept the award for Best Alternative Show of the 2025 theater season in Mar del Plata.
“We want everyone to know that sexual and gender dissidents are making their presence felt on every stage, from Cosquín to the Teatro Colón! We exist and we are legitimate performers and artists! Here we are producing and creating the most beautiful things for our country, and for the world!” La Ferni exclaimed, holding the award in front of an audience of leading figures and figures from the artistic world gathered at the Gran Hotel Provincial that evening of February 5th.
In August, the sisters premiere Queer Opera at the Picadero Theater in Buenos Aires.
Voices with identity
The idea for Queer Opera began to emerge in 2016 during a series at the cultural diversity center, Casa Brandon . There, at some point during the evening, the sisters were invited to take the stage to sing. They would surprise the audience by singing operatic arias and duets.
At that time, the proposal did not yet take the form of a performance. It was a playful space in which La Ferni and La Luchi—both trained in lyrical technique—recreated scenes from their childhood, in which they sang opera together at home. It encouraged them to share their art in a different context, with greater freedom to choose how they presented themselves on stage, and in front of an audience that enthusiastically applauded their performances.
Performance after performance, this experimentation took shape. It became a structured work that questions gender roles not only in culture but also in artistic expression. And it does so through a traditional and highly regulated language like opera, where vocality has historically been linked to biological sex.
While Ópera Queer was giving its first performances in small independent venues, Luchi was earning her degree in Musical Arts from the National University of the Arts (UNA) . For her, the project she shared with her sister was a vehicle that allowed her to channel a personal search for identity through singing:
“It was in this show that I allowed myself to be La Luchi before being La Luchi. I think it's important to mention that I also needed to transition vocally , and after a lot of study, the countertenora I am now emerged, with dedicated teachers who collaborated in this exploration of how to address my sensitivity, my vocality, and my expression, which developed and began there.”
A game between sisters, a paradigm shift
At the beginning of her training as a lyric singer, Luchi Gyldenfeldt was assigned the baritone range—one of the lowest voices on the spectrum—without the possibility of considering the higher register she perceived herself to possess. Her journey with Ópera Queer encouraged her to explore this alternative range with greater confidence.
Today, she is perfecting her "countertenora" (high-pitched voice) range in the Baroque singing specialization program at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón , where she will make her solo debut in late August. She is also a full professor at the first Chair of Dissident Lyric Singing , a space for vocal exploration created in 2021 as part of the academic offerings of the university where she trained.
“Taking on the role of a university professor seemed crazy to me at first. Later, I realized it was incredibly important and that I could open up a space within UNA, and within classical music, to discuss dissident identities. In my vocal transition, I felt the need for support from the community, and that's something that's still lacking. Not just in classical music: there's a lack of trans professionals, psychologists, lawyers, and so on .”
Her sister, La Ferni, is a folk singer, teacher, and communicator. She also faced criticism in another musical setting: the folklore tradition. This led her to become the first non-binary solo singer at Argentina's most important Folklore Festival, held in the city of Cosquín, Córdoba . Despite winning the competition in the first instance, in order to continue her participation in the contest with her gender identity, the artist had to file a complaint with the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI)—an organization that was dissolved in 2024 by the government of Javier Milei. This resulted in the modification of the festival's bylaws, created in 1965, which only distinguished between male and female soloists.
“ Queer Opera was the place where I could begin to express who I wanted to be,” La Ferni recalls. “At the time, it meant breaking away from binarism, from an imposed place, from a single way of being. It was pure play and exploration.”
“ Queer Opera is our way of being both in music”
Ferni, like her sister Luchi, comes from a "lyrical background" – as she calls it – but decided to fully dedicate herself to popular and folk music.
“I stepped back from the world of opera by choice. For some time now, it's been very exciting for me to embrace the fact that my vocal identity, within the popular singer that I am, is that of a lyric singer. I wouldn't be La Ferni if I weren't this popular baritone ( Note from the R: a term coined by La Ferni to merge the low vocal range of a baritone and the high range of a tenor ) with a background in Italian bel canto that allows me to create nuances, sound projections, and colors with which I also paint my interpretations in the popular music songs I choose to sing.”
Along with her solo career and the project she runs with her sister, La Ferni produces the "Peñas Arcoiris" ( in backyards and festivals in different provinces across the country. Meanwhile, she's producing her first album and planning her second tour in Spain.
While some of the twins' personal stories are brought to life in their joint project, La Ferni clarifies that the work doesn't represent their entire lives, nor the entirety of their bond as sisters. "Today, Queer Opera is our shared way of being both in music," she explains.
New scenarios for the fight
The night they won the award in Mar del Plata, the sisters were taking the stage like never before: honored, for the first time, with an award for their dissident opera show. A few months earlier, the work had been nominated for Best Music Hall, Café Concert, and/or Musical Variety at the Hugo Awards for musical theater.
“We're surprised that Queer Opera has established itself, in recent years, as a musical theater show in the world of the 'spectacle,' which has nothing to do with folklore or opera. Although our work has a bit of both genres,” says La Luchi . “Being recognized with the Estrella de Mar award showed us that what we do has to do with Moria Casán in Brujas , with Flor Peña in Mamma Mía , it has to do with Ricky Pashkus… That was a real surprise for us.”
Dissidents on the scene
In 2025, the twins arrive on a new stage for Queer Opera . It's the Picadero Theater, in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires, a historic 300-seat venue. There, the show shares the bill with renowned figures in Argentine theater and television.
For La Luchi, the fact that Ópera Queer is being presented in a venue of this magnitude expresses a political stance. “In a context where so many rights are being taken away and hate speech and violence are being legitimized online—and real violence, because hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community have increased significantly— the fact that our show isn't in a basement but displayed in a window is a challenge and also a provocation. Although we're not doing this to provoke. But what did they think? That we were going to go back where? To just gather in houses? The fact that it's happening in this second year of this disastrous government also seems like a response to me. It's a recalculation and a saying: 'Here we are.'”
Embrace, enjoyment and resistance
Just as Queer Opera is an artistic project informed by a critical perspective, it also functions as a refuge for humor. “This project continues to be an alternative for generating relaxation through enjoyment and pleasure,” says La Ferni. “ Queer Opera is an embrace and a place where people choose to have a good time. In this present we're living in, it's good to allow ourselves to be embraced, to be moved in a loving space , one that isn't inundated with a code of violence, a lack of empathy, or the normalization of things we no longer want to normalize.”
Another characteristic of this project is its self-management, a form of production that is even more challenging in a context where public organizations dedicated to promoting the arts and culture in Argentina are being dismantled. Regarding this, La Luchi maintains: "I like the show to be genuine and professional at the same time. The singers are professional, the pianist is professional, the lighting is professional, and it's a self-managed show with affordable admission."”.
For both, it's "a self-managed and independent venture for our dissident popular culture ." The twins not only star in and direct their show, but also produce it while coordinating the team that accompanies them at each performance.
“Being on this Picadero lineup is a huge effort that involves living up to a season in a late-night slot, in the winter, with the challenge of making it possible for everyone who wants to see it to do so,” says La Luchi. She concludes: “I like to think that Ópera Queer opens a world where two trans sisters—one a transvestite and the other a non-binary trans woman—can legitimately occupy an important place in the cultural battle we are currently waging, here and around the world.”
Ópera Queer will be presented at the Teatro Picadero (Pje. Santos Discépolo 1857, Buenos Aires City) on Saturdays, August 16, 23, and 30 at 11:59 PM. Tickets can be purchased at PlateaNet.com , and promotions are available on the project's Instagram page .
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