Céline & Orlando

Costume Designer: Anjana Pavlič
Komorni ansambel Slovenskega komornega glasbenega gledališča / chamber ensemble  of the Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre 
 

CÉLINE, one voice opera
Composer: Richard Harvey
Soloist: Gloria Tronel 
A one-act opera, Céline depicts the fascinating story of Céline Arnauld, a Jewish émigré born Carolina Goldstein in Romania. She gained fame as the only prominent woman in the Dada movement in the 1920s Paris. Leaving behind a body of work rich in innovation, her experimental texts appeared in the most prominent avant-garde journals. Céline Arnauld was the author of a dozen poetry books, and also contributed to numerous pamphlets, Dada manifestos and radio broadcasts, thus playing a central role in the dissemination and influence of the Dada movement. She lived and worked in Paris in the inter-war period and was a near-native speaker of French. She took her own life shortly after her husband’s, the poet Paul Dermée’s death from cancer. It was 1952, she was isolated by her financial plight and sensed she would be "written out" of history... Moreover, she saw herself not as a Dada poet but as a "lyrical modernist". She felt marginalised (an émigré, a woman, a Jew), and her anthology and textbook references were almost invariably listed as "Céline Arnauld – see under Paul Dermée". She snidely remarked to her compatriot Tristan Tzara (the self-proclaimed "father of Dada") that her books were "out there and will defend themselves" – whether this was true will be known a hundred years from now.

ORLANDO, Le voyage commence, one voice opera
Composer: Benedikt Hayoz
Libretto: Based on the novel by Virginia Woolf
Orlando, mezzo-soprano: Sara Briški Cirman

Immersed in the excitement of the Elizabethan era, we witness Orlando setting out on his incredible journey. A young nobleman, Orlando is a poet at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Engrossed in a passionate, adventurous lifestyle, he is captivated by the beauty of poetry and the regal splendour of the court. After a prolongued trance, lasting almost four hundred years, Orlando awakens as a woman. Orlando's world is full of enchantment and mystery, the extraordinary powers he is endowed with take him on an epic journey across love, power and the transience of existence. His search for identity is marked by poignant encounters in which he discovers the true meaning of life and the challenges standing in his way. 
Co-production: Slovensko komorno glasbeno gledališče/ Slovenian Chamber Music Theatre, Cankarjev dom, Nouvel Opéra Fribourg