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Duration: 2 hours, 50 minutes, 1 intermission

Synopsis of the Opera

I went out into the world with a passion in my soul…

Act 1

Orlando’s trial is underway in the courtroom. The reason for the case is the fact that Orlando was born a man, an English nobleman, has already been alive for 300 years, and turned into a woman in the middle of his life. The subject of the trial is to determine whether he is dead or alive, a man or a woman.

Witnesses to Orlando’s life come before the court. The first is the captain of the ship The Enamoured Lady who took Orlando from Turkey to London. His testimony is clear – Orlando is a woman. The next witness is Archduke Harry. He has been madly in love with Orlando from the moment he saw his portrait at the royal court. He confesses that he even disguised himself as a woman in order to get close to him, which causes outrage in the court. He also states that

Orlando was a man, but that Orlando returned from Turkey, where he had served as ambassador, as a woman. Harry also reveals Orlando’s lifelong love of poetry. On board the ship, Orlando/a had learned for the first time that the female gender carries certain restrictions and expectations from society. Harry’s testimony about meeting the poets only confirms this. After all, a woman cannot write poems, she has to stay silent and get married, because otherwise she is entirely lost in the world. Harry makes a proposal of marriage to Orlando and is rejected.

Another witness comes into the courtroom – Shelmerdine. The appearance of the sailor and adventurer causes a stir, as does the finding that he and Orlanda are married. They were married on 26 October 1884. They met at the time when Orlando, as an unmarried woman persecuted by the pressures of society, had escaped to the wild, which had always been a safe haven for her. She falls, and it is Shelmerdine who rushes to her aid. They both discover that they are ideal counterparts and the wedding follows immediately. Harry refuses to give up his love and insists that Orlando/a is his. By admitting that he loved Orlando as a man, society turns against him and the judge sends him to prison and adjourns the trial.

Act two

The hearing continues. The judge is about to deliver the verdict when a woman – the gypsy Rosina Pepita – pushes her way through the crowd. She married Orlando when he was ambassador to Turkey and had three sons with him. She confronts Orlando about abandoning her and tells the court how he fell asleep one day and woke up as a woman. But she is not willing to accept his transformation. The judge has her led out of the court and annuls the marriage. Pepita’s despair

in Orlando awakens a memory of his first love, Sasha, who broke his heart. Just as the judge is about to speak, Orlando’s memory of Sasha envelops the entire courtroom in a blizzard. Time turns back and Sasha appears as a narrator – the courtroom turns into the stage of a baroque masque in which we observe Orlando’s youth, his career as an aristocrat, his love for literature, and his potential brides. Summer gives way to autumn and winter. Queen Elizabeth dies and King James ascends the throne. The ambassador from Moscow arrives and Orlando falls in love with his daughter Sasha. She abandons him and his world falls apart…

Back in the present, and the judge pronounces the verdict – Orlando is a woman and as such has no right to anything, her house does not belong to her and her voice carries no weight in society. Orlando collapses. Time comes to a halt again and through it comes Queen Elizabeth. For her, Orlando was her comfort in her old age, and now she comes to defend him and to remind him of what is important. After all, it doesn’t matter what identity we live in, whether we change it – when Orlando calls, who will wake up? What matters is who we are and whether we can live life to the full at the present moment. Sasha reappears and the court reporter recognises her past self in her.

How she has changed, what she has given up. Others also recognise their counterparts across time. Orlando’s child sees wild geese flying and runs after them. It is time to move on!

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