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While the internationally renowned Vienna Opera House is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, it welcomes for the first time an opera composed by a woman: Orlando, of the Austrian Olga Neuwirth and adapted from the eponymous novel by Virginia Woolf. .
With our correspondent in Vienna , Isaure Hiace
Olga Neuwirth is delighted to be the first woman to compose an opera for the famous Wiener Staatsoper, but she does not forget that it took 150 years for this to happen. " The world of classical music is very conservative, it's a world where you can hardly trust, especially women composers so I hope things will change because it's time ."
The composer explains that she wanted to jostle the institution when she was asked to deliver an order to the Vienna State Opera. " The systems come to an end and when you get to that end, you can give things a different direction, more openness, " says Olga Neuwirth.
An opera that shakes genres
Olga Neuwirth chose to adapt the Virginia Woolf novel Orlando , published in 1928, where we follow an atypical hero who crosses the centuries and wakes up a beautiful day as a woman. A work that questions identity and gender, which interested the Austrian composer.
" Virginia Woolf challenges the binary system of men and women and opens the question of the fluidity of the genre. This is important because there are violent reactions again today about how a man or woman is supposed to behave. As an artist we can not change things, but we raise questions . "
Like the composer, the key functions of the creation of the show - costume, writing and staging - are also entrusted to women. The first performance of Orlando takes place on Sunday, December 8, 2019 at the Vienna Opera.
This Sunday, Olga Neuwirth's opera "Orlando" finally celebrates its world premiere! Here is a first glimpse at the Wiener Staatsoper production. 📷 Wiener Staatsoper / Michael Pöhn pic.twitter.com/FIUyo2EzmL
Ricordi (@Casa_Ricordi) December 6, 2019