Climbing the stairs to QueerPOPERA’s homecoming concert in the Steyer Opera House on Oct. 10, there was an audible cacophony coming from the room. Rounding the corner, there was a bright pink, hand-painted disco-themed backdrop. Patrons were purchasing their tickets from people dressed in hot pink, picking up corsages and boutonnieres from Oak and Olive Flowers and walking through a sparkly pink tinsel curtain to find their seats in the opera house. Streamers in all colors of the rainbow and string lights were draped across balconies and light fixtures overhead. The hall was filled with excited chatter, fabulous outfits and even someone dressed as an 18th century composer. There were plenty of rainbows, plenty of sparkle, and overall, unabashed self-expression. 

QueerPOPERA is a pop-up opera company based in Decorah, Iowa, that wishes to “amplify LGBTQ+ stories through the transformative power of opera.” Established in 2024 by Jaime Webb (‘17), a member of the Luther College voice faculty, the company’s mission is to recognize discrimination and historical exclusion in the field of opera, and actively work to rectify these injustices. They strive to create a space that embraces and celebrates queerness in all forms, particularly in the rural Midwest, where there is limited access to artistic spaces that affirm and celebrate LGBTQ+ identity, stories and performers. 

Their most recent production was a QueerPOPERA homecoming concert, directed by Paige Cameron, the assistant director at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Through this production, and all of the work that QueerPOPERA does, Webb intends to amplify the queer undertones present in all opera practice. 

“Opera is an inherently queer art form,” Webb emphasized. “It always has been. 
There’s always been cross dressing. There’s always been a fluidity of gender on stage, and unfortunately, there’s also been a history of marginalization of queer folks. [Though there are] lots of straight stories told on stage, there’s an inherent queerness in opera that is worth celebrating, and there’s a historic marginalization that’s worth dismantling.” 

Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano Nicholas Shaneyfelt, works with QueerPOPERA to tell, and retell, queer stories through various interpretations of classic opera tropes, as well as newly composed works. 

“Queerness in opera for me is a way to retell stories, to honor undertones of things in the past that have always been there that now have a different kind of cultural ring these days,” said Shaneyfelt. “It’s equal parts honoring tradition and also having a revisionist spin on it.” 

Through QueerPOPERA’s core artist program, opera singers submit stories that they are eager to tell through a queer lens. The QueerPOPERA team actively encourages artists to create their own stories, and then they workshop the potential scenes into a cohesive story, working to “yes, and” the artists’ vision. Webb and the QueerPOPERA artistic team create this story, and Shaneyfelt works with artists to imagine various ways to tell a story through a piece. He asks himself, 

“Could I change words to be more inclusive, or to have a retelling of the story? 
Could I swap out the gender of a character to suddenly make this a same-sex retelling of an opera?” Shaneyfelt said. “We have to [remember] that opera has been doing pants roles for a long time: mezzo sopranos singing little boy roles or young men roles. Handel operas from the Baroque era, in which men are singing countertenor. They’re singing in what is normally a soprano, female octave. There’s always been genderbending and undertones of queerness in opera.” 

A trouser, breeches, or pants role is a male character that is sung or acted by a female singer. Beginning in the late 1700s, many prominent operatic roles were written for mezzo-sopranos to sing the role of a little boy, or a young man. From Cherubino in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” to Octavian in Strauss’ “Der Rosekavalir,” or Ruggiero in Handel’s “Alcina,” over the years, gender-bent roles have been paramount to the storylines of many mainstream operas. 

In February 2025, the Iowa House of Representatives brought a bill to the floor that specifically targeted gender-bent performance in the presence of minors, couched in the form of drag shows. 

The bill, H.S.B. 158, defines a drag show as a performance where “the main aspect of the performance is a performer who exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth through the use of clothing, makeup, accessories, or other gender signifiers.” 

Jim Obradovich, a representative from the Independent Venue Association of Iowa, spoke about the possibility of limiting opportunities for minors to see to classical art, like opera, because of the presence of pants roles. Under H.S.B. 158, minors would not be allowed to see any kind of genderbent performance. The broad language of the bill could also have substantial repercussions for people who are transgender. The bill has since been amended to H.F. 891, to more specifically include language about obscenity, switching the focus from people who are transgender, and centering the dangers of children seeing drag performances meant for adult audiences. 

Though the language of the bill has changed, the sentiments still remain. Shaneyfelt discussed the backlash that the Cedar Rapids Opera received after performing a scene from Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” The character of Cherubino is a teenage boy, and has always been played by a mezzo-soprano, since it premiered in 1786. 

“Somebody complained to them: how dare you do a drag role?” Shaneyfelt said. “[People] are so woke-enabled by this new law that’s going around in Iowa, where you can be punished if you’re a school that performs a drag show. [What] you really don’t understand [is] that this has been going on for 300 years, before woke and drag were even terms in people’s lexicons.” 

In their mission to expand the narrative around queer opera performance, Webb and QueerPOPERA strive to include artists who are from the Midwest. All of the QueerPOPERA performers are opera singers who identify as queer and either are from the Midwest, or are somehow tied to the Midwest. 

“There’s no opera company in the Midwest who’s doing this kind of work,” Webb said. “I think it’s inherently important, specifically in the Midwest, in the heartland [to tell queer stories].” 

Mezzo soprano Narantsetseg Ren performed with QueerPOPERA, and though she is originally from Mongolia, Ren feels a deep connection with the Midwest. 

“It was in the Midwest that I first found the courage to live and sing my truth,” Ren said in an artist statement to QueerPOPERA. “The wide skies, sincere kindness, and community-centered spirit of the region mirror the Mongolian grasslands of my childhood, where song and identity are deeply intertwined. I believe opera in this context has a uniquely healing and transformative role to play– especially when it centers queer narratives.” 

Tenor and QueerPOPERA performer Justin Kroll looks at his performance and teaching work as a way to help others see themselves. 

“If I can sing out loud, I can live out loud, and as such, I can show myself for who I am, lighting the way for those who only needed the path illuminated,” said Kroll in his artist statement. “As we embark on another Trump presidency, we must continue to tell queer stories, especially in the rural Midwest and other red-leaning parts of the country. By simply living and loving, we protest.”

Elizabeth Guy (‘27) grew up in suburban Georgia, where queerness was not discussed, especially in faith spaces. In her time at Luther, she has worked to diversify her musical repertoire to include queer stories that are more inclusive of many types of love. 

“With a world that tries to shut [queerness] down, we learn and teach by looking through history and the arts,” said Guy. “I am honored and blessed to use my voice to share these stories, to help others.” 

Decorah, Iowa, is a unique rural town because there is a thriving and highly visible LGBTQ+ community. Over a weekend in October, the town celebrates Decorah Pride, with pride flags hanging from the lampposts that line the main street. Many local businesses display their pride flags year-round, and walking around neighborhood streets, it is not uncommon to see several pride flags hung from porches, or beside doorways. Webb and Shaneyfelt addressed the experience of breaking down core artists’ stereotypes of rural Iowa. 

“So many of our core artists [from out of town] were not expecting that in rural Iowa, people were going to show up and show out,” Webb said. “I knew it would happen, because I know Decorah, but watching their surprise was amazing.”

“[Several core artists walked] down the street and [said] wow, what you have here is pretty cool,” said Shaneyfelt. “For them to see that an art form that is typically pretty urbane, pretty European, pretty white, enjoyed by white upper middle class, kind of conventional population, does not always need to be that, right? 
[This art form] can exist in spaces that are not just those things.” 

After the QueerPOPERA company performed opera scenes surrounding the idea of homecoming, they hosted a queer homecoming dance for all attendees, with music from the Driftless Jazz Collective. Their upcoming projects include an original chamber opera about the relationship between a queer daughter and a faith-informed mother, composed by Alexis C. Lamb, with Webb and her mother, Kari Webb as co-librettists. 

Ultimately, QueerPOPERA is about celebrating queerness in all forms, increasing visibility, and cultivating community spaces to tell stories that have often gone untold. 

“Storytelling allows us to transcend time– to reflect on the past, to be in the present, and to dream for the future, simultaneously,” said Jana Lundell (‘16), a dancer in the QueerPOPERA Homecoming concert. “We begin to unravel and identify who we are, who we have been, and how we relate to self and others. Storytelling opens a door to connecting, experiencing and knowing what we cannot access otherwise, which is why representation matters in the stories that we tell.”