Presented as part of the Midsumma Festival, As One is apparently the world’s first opera about the transgender experience. Honest, poignant and ultimately uplifting, this 75-minute chamber work makes both its subject and opera highly accessible. This Australian premiere, produced by Melbourne’s small, independent Gertrude Opera, is led by two talented young local singers and American conductor Alexandra Enyart.

Joshua Erdelyi-Götz and Morgan Carter in As One. Photo © Sarah Clarke

First performed in Brooklyn in 2014, As One is composed by Laura Kaminsky and inspired by the life of transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed. She wrote the libretto with Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Campbell, and also created the evocative film footage that’s presented as overlapping projections on the wall behind the stage area.

Though the colloquially clear (sometimes perhaps too literal) libretto and Kaminsky’s expressive contemporary score never leaves the audience in any doubt, the film heightens the sparsely staged opera’s sense of time, place and mood. Hannah’s journey begins with a seemingly traditional Midwest childhood, continues with getaways to San Francisco where she begins to express her true self, and concludes in the Norwegian wilderness, where contemplation leads to self-acceptance.

In between are critical episodes such...