Olga Neuwirth (CRF 2016)’s new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s gender-crossing novel is the first work by a woman at the Vienna State Opera.
Olga Neuwirth’s new opera, “Orlando,” based on the gender-crossing fictional biography by Virginia Woolf, is the first piece the Vienna State Opera has ever performed by a female composer. With a libretto by Ms. Neuwirth and Catherine Filloux, and costumes by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, it premieres on Sunday, and will be available to stream for three days, starting on Dec. 18, at staatsoperlive.com.
In the opera, as in the novel, a young nobleman at the court of Elizabeth I falls in love and goes on military adventures before experiencing a sudden change of sex. As a woman, she lives without aging, roams freely through time and space, interacts with great writers and leaders, and chronicles the hidden, personal narratives of women often left out of official histories.
Read more in the New York Times article, here.