World Premiere Opera of 'Orlando' by Olga Neuwirth With Costumes by Fashion Empire of Comme des Garçons

Renowned Soprano Constance Hauman Makes Vienna State Opera Debut in World Premiere Opera of "Orlando" by Olga Neuwirth With Costumes by Fashion Empire of

Comme des Garçons

Iconic Fashion Designer Rei Kawakubo

(COMME DES GARÇONS) to Design “Orlando”

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On 8^th December 2019, internationally celebrated American soprano, Constance Hauman, (www.constancehauman.com) will make her Vienna State Opera Debut. She will perform three roles (Queen Elizabeth I, Purity, Friend of Orlando’s Child) in the cast of Orlando, a world premiere opera by Austrian composer, Olga Neuwirth, who is the first woman to be commissioned to compose an opera for the Vienna State Opera in over 150 years. Orlando is based on the novel (Published 11^th October 1928) by Virginia Woolf. Costumes for the production will be designed by the legendary Japanese fashion designer, Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons fashion empire.

v  Runway Magazine writes:

“The idea is formidable. Three great artistic women’s imaginations-Virginia Woolf, Olga Neuwirth, Rei Kawakubo—converging on the idea of conveying a character’s journey from one gender to the other.”

Olga Neuwirth chose Hauman for the ensemble cast of Orlando; the two first worked together in Austria on Lost Highway, the composer’s 2003 opera adaptation of the 1997 David Lynch film of the same name, with a libretto by 2004 Nobel Prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek.

Constance Hauman, who was a protégé of Leonard Bernstein has sung over 2,000 performance of opera and hundreds of concerts with such companies and orchestras as Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Spoletto and Santa Fe USA Festivals, Opera National de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony and the London Philharmonia. She made headlines across Europe as the waif/sex-goddess in Alban Berg’s Lulu and can be heard in this role on a live recording on the Chandos Label.