The , an unconventional piece embracing a vast range of musical styles from Tudor-era ballads to modern electronic sound layering, was commissioned by Vienna State Opera and premiered on its stage in 2019.

drew inspiration for the three-hour work from “Orlando: A Biography,” Woolf’s 1928 fictional account of a young male poet in 16^th century England who mysteriously becomes female at age 30 and lives until the early 20^th century. The book, which shows how gender can be fluid in different circumstances, is considered a feminist classic and has been extensively studied by scholars focusing on women’s, gender and transgender issues.

“I wanted to reflect the wonderful diversity of life and evoke a subtle form of sexual attraction that cannot be pigeonholed into a single gender,” Neuwirth said. “What’s more, the main character refuses to be patronized and treated in a condescending manner, something that continually happens to women with no end in sight.”

Neuwirth studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and painting and film at San Francisco Art Institute. She lives and teaches in Vienna.

Earlier this year, she won the 2021 Wolf Prize in Music, a prestigious international award presented in Israel that also went to Stevie Wonder.

“’Orlando’ is an enormous, supremely ambitious work,” said Marc Satterwhite, who directs the Grawemeyer music award. “The libretto and multifaceted score challenge our preconceptions of gender and sexual roles and test our ideas of what opera is and is not. It also seems appropriate that the first female-composed opera to be performed at the Vienna State Opera, a venue long regarded as a bastion of tradition, should take aim at these issues.”

Ricordi Berlin, the German branch of Italian music publisher Casa Ricordi, published the winning work.

Recipients of next year’s are being named this week pending formal approval by university trustees. The annual, $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in world order, psychology, education and religion. Recipients will visit Louisville in April to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

They are performing : “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell and “The Telephone” by Gian Carlo Menotti at 8 p.m. April 10 and 11 in the all purpose room of the Student Activities Center.

The Telephone is a comedy written in 1946-47 and is contemporary in subject matter and musical style. The one-act story revolves around the main character’s attempt to pry his lover’s attention from her phone conversations long enough to propose.

Dido and Aeneas was written 1688 and is considered one of the earliest operas. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil’s “Aeneid” and recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell’s foremost theatrical works and his only true opera.��

This year marks the first time the Opera Theatre Program has performed in the SAC, a feat made possible by the remodeled building’s enhanced lighting and sound.

“We are doing this opera with masks and very interactively with the audience. That’s why the SAC is good … because we can get out actually in the audience for parts of this production. We are also ‘live capturing’ the action and projecting it on the screens in that room since it all was redone and the technical qualities now exist for that to happen. It is what most people would call experimental,” said Michael Ramach, co-director of the Opera Theatre Program.  

Patrons may enjoy a cash-only bar and popcorn.

“This should be a really fun evening,” Ramach said.

Call 502-852-6907 to reserve tickets, which are $20 for adults, $10 for students and free for UofL students, staff and faculty.

With witches and wizards, a dragon, a magical battle and an epic love story, the opera is essentially a fairy tale, said Michael Ramach, co-director of opera theatre at UofL.

UofL’s rendition will play up the story’s magical aspects with special effects such as smoke, black lights, video projections and slight-of-hand tricks.

The show is an accessible introduction to opera for those who may be unfamiliar with the age-old art form, but are curious. The two-act production is in English and is a , a form that includes both singing and spoken dialogue.

With the full orchestra behind the singers, who will be staged front-and-center, the show will feel intimate, Ramach said.

“For 500 years, opera was the most popular art form on earth, so they were written for everyone to enjoy,” he said. “‘The Magic Flute’ is a wonderful story of good and evil with great tunes. It’s for everyone in your family.”

The story, alternately a serious and comic exploration of love, truth and the search for enlightenment, portrays the education of mankind, progressing from chaos to rational enlightenment by means of trial and error. “The Magic Flute” premiered in 1791 in Vienna and was one of Mozart’s last works before he died.

The show is at 8 p.m. on April 8 and 2 p.m. on April 10. Tickets are $20, $10 for students and seniors, free for all UofL students, staff and faculty. For tickets go tokentuckycenter.org or call 502-584-7777. Kentucky Center members call 502-566-5144.

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