Olga Neuwirth’s "Orlando"

By mutual agreement, the English director Polly Graham will be directing Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando instead of Karoline Gruber. The world première on 8 December 2019 will feature stage design by Roy Spahn, lighting by Ulrich Schneider with videos by Will Duke and costumes by Comme des Garçons. The singers in the production conducted by Matthias Pintscher will include Kate Lindsey, Eric Jurenas, Constance Hauman, Leigh Melrose, Vivian Bond and Agneta Eichenholz. The key role of the “Narrator” has to be recast as Fiona Shaw has cancelled her participiation on short notice due to a film project in the USA.

First conceived in 2014, Olga Neuwirth’s “opera in 19 scenes” (lyrics: Catherine Filloux and Olga Neuwirth) is based on Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name. Unlike the original story, which ends in 1928, this exploration of time and gender through the centuries continues right up to the year 2019. Olga Neuwirth’s music theatre opens a door into the realm of what has been simultaneously experienced, read and heard, of what is known and felt – in other words, into the realm of fiction shaped by memories. “Ever since I was a child I have been interested in everything from the arts to politics, from the sciences to architecture and human psychology (…) I have let myself be inspired by the small and big things that the world has to offer, by the wonderful diversity of life, and I see this reflected in Orlando. For it is a love of oddities, of the paradoxical, the grotesque, virtuosity, exaltation and exaggeration that are the essence of this fictional biography, which aims to create a new morphology of a narration which is in a constant flow to create a fluid form. At all times it is also about (…) a sophisticated and highly subtle form of sexual attraction that rejects being pigeonholed in any one gender. As well as about refusing to be patronised and treated in a condescending manner – something that continually happens to women, with no end in sight”, says Olga Neuwirth.

Die Opern- und Theaterregisseurin Polly Graham ist Künstlerische Direktorin der Longborough Festival Opera und von Loud Crowd. Sie studierte Englisch am Trinity College in Dublin und an der Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), am Teatr Pieśń Kosła sowie am Le Théâtre du Soleil und war zwei Jahre Genesis Assistant Director an der Welsh National Opera. 2016 erhielt sie den Independent Opera Director Fellowship. Ihre Arbeiten wurden 2016 und 2017 als „Best Opera Production“ bei den Wales Theatre Awards ausgezeichnet, 2017 war sie in der Newcomer-Kategorie der International Opera Awards sowie für den Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award nominiert.
Für die Welsh National Opera inszenierte sie Frank Martins Le Vin Herbé, die UK-Erstaufführung von Iain Bells A Christmas Carol sowie Maxwell Davies Kommilitonen! für die Welsh National Youth Opera. Sie inszenierte weiters die UK-Erstaufführung von Karl Amadeus Hartmanns Simplicius Simplicissimus für die Independent Opera am Sadler’s Wells; A Christmas Carol für die Fondazione Haydn, Trento; Le Vin Herbé (Der Zaubertrank) am Theater St. Gallen sowie The Emperor of Atlantis mit Loud Crowd am Bold Tendencies, London.

ORLANDO | Olga Neuwirth
Première: 8. Dezember 2019
11, 14, 18, 20 Dezember 2019

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