National Domestic Violence Awareness Project

profeminist:

“The hallowed stage of the Vienna State Opera has seen a lot: superstar performers, premieres, scandals and moments of musical history. But in all its 150 years, the house has never staged an opera written by a woman. That will change next month, with the premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s operatic version of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography.

“I really want to shake up this old-fashioned, beautiful, wonderful place a bit,” said Neuwirth, a 51-year-old Austrian composer, in a backstage interview during rehearsals at the opera house.

Orlando, which has been called the first English-language trans novel due to its playful exploration of gender fluidity, has been a favourite of Neuwirth’s since she first read it at 15.

“It’s not only about gender bending, it questions all binary systems,” she said. “Orlando is a remarkable human being who questions every kind of duality and experiences a sense of ‘in-betweenness’ in both life and art. It’s about freedom of speech, about being who you are, to choose the identity you like and not be put into a drawer if you’re a man or a woman.”

Read the full piece here

“After 150 years, Vienna opera house stages first opera by a woman”