Orlando

– Jan Windszus Photography

Imagine being immortal and witnessing four centuries of history firsthand—first as a man, then as a woman...

A favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, the young English nobleman Orlando is showered with honours and estates—and henceforth, ceases to age. After an unresolved love affair with the beautiful Russian Sasha, Orlando withdraws from society, determined to become a poet. Disappointed once again, he then takes up a diplomatic post in a distant conflict zone. There, after a trance-like sleep lasting a week, Orlando awakens as a woman. With this change, she discovers that she’s lost all her property ownership rights in England. In search of freedom, Orlando journeys through centuries of patriarchal rule, witnessing Baroque decadence, Victorian morality, countless wars, and the rise of the digital age. Orlando’s own non-binary child embodies the fluidity of identity, challenging every notion of duality. As a poet, Orlando writes against simplification and populism, and as a time traveller, Orlando continuously reimagines the present.Virginia Woolf dedicated her visionary novel Orlando to her lover Vita Sackville-West in 1928. In the opera Orlando, which premiered in 2019, the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth continues the fictional biography into the present day and embarks on her own musical journey through time, from madrigals to electronic music. Director Ewelina Marciniak brings this kaleidoscopic work on the fluidity of time, style and gender roles to a German stage for the first time in this new production by the Komische Oper Berlin.

Artists/Collaborators: Natan Berkowicz (Video), David Cavelius (Chöre), Dagmar Barbara Fiebach (Kinderchorleitung), Olaf Freese (Licht), Sophie Jira (Dramaturgie), Mirek Kaczmarek (Bühnenbild), Johannes Kalitzke (Musikalische Leitung), Julia Kornacka (Kostüme), Agnieszka Kryst (Choreografie), Ewelina Marciniak (Inszenierung), Markus Noisternig (Sounddesign), Ema Nikolovska (Orlando), Alma Sadé (Narrator), Eric Jurenas (Guardian Angel), Karolina Gumos (Queen/Purity/Friend of Orlando's Child), Ulrike Helzel (Modesty), Anna Nekhames (Sasha/Chastity), Günter Papendell (Shelmerdine/Greene), Andrew Harris (Dryden), Andrew Dickinson (Addison), Kevin(a) Taylor (Orlando's Child), Ivan Turšić (Officiant / Doctor 1), Tom Erik Lie (Pope / Doctor 2), Stephanos Tsirakoglou (Duke / Doctor 3), Claudia Greco (Fiancee / Tänzerin), Martina Borroni (Servant / Tänzerin), Michael Fernandez (Children's Father / Tänzer), Rafał Matusiak (Tutor / Russian Sailor / Tänzer), Mikołaj Karczewski (Boat's Captain / Tänzer), Paulina Plucinski (Lead-Sängerin), Solisten des Tölzer Knabenchores (Putto), Anna Szopa (Maus / Tänzerin), Ana Paola Machicado Torres (Geräuschemacherinnen), Anna Gelyuk (Geräuschemacherinnen), Judith Isabella Schiller (Geräuschemacherinnen), Weronika Sierenberg (Geräuschemacherinnen), Tzu-Yin Lin (Geräuschemacherinnen), Dobromira Kur (Geräuschemacherinnen), Sofia Pintzou (Tänzer:innen), Daniel Daniela Ojeda Yrureta (Tänzer:innen), Kai Chun Chuang (Tänzer:innen), Chorsolisten der Komischen Oper Berlin (Chor), Kinderchor der Komischen Oper Berlin (Kinderchor), Komparserie (Komparserie), Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin (Orchester)

Next date:

• Date Saturday, 16/May/2026 19:00 (5 more dates)
• Venue Komische Oper Berlin: Schillertheater - Großer Saal
• Address Bismarckstraße 110, 10625 Berlin-Charlottenburg