44-533: Olga Neuwirth ( Austrian German: [ˈɔlɡa ˈnɔʏvɪrt] ; born 4 August 1968) is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an open-ended, interdisciplinary approach in her work, collaborating frequently with Elfriede Jelinek , exploiting live electronics , and incorporating video. In her opera Lost Highway , she adapted David Lynch's surrealist film with
88-625: A "fictional adventure novel through multiple spatial sound effects", drawing on Herman Melville's novella The Encantadas (1894) and Luigi Nono's sound world, especially that of his 1984 Prometeo . The starting point of this composition is an acoustical survey (Neuwirth: "preservation of acoustic heritage") of the Chiesa San Lorenzo in Venice . In the 1990s, Neuwirth began crossing genre boundaries between theatrical drama, opera, radio drama, performance art and video. She has expressed interest in
132-459: A broad spectrum of stimuli and possibilities of expression. This has been reflected in the titles of her works, for example in The Outcast , a musicstallation-theater with video. Neuwirth often set herself the goal of breaking up established forms of concert presentation in order to arrive at a "fluid form". For example, during the breaks in her two "portrait concerts" at the 1998 Salzburg Festival,
176-599: A child, Elfriede attended a Roman Catholic convent school in Vienna. Her mother planned a career for her as a musical " Wunderkind ". She was instructed in piano, organ, guitar, violin, viola, and recorder from an early age. Later, she went on to study at the Vienna Conservatory , where she graduated with an organist diploma; during this time, she tried to meet her mother's high expectations, while coping with her psychologically ill father. She studied art history and theater at
220-529: A household name during the 1990s due to her vociferous clash with Jörg Haider 's Freedom Party . Following the 1999 National Council elections, and the subsequent formation of a coalition cabinet consisting of the Freedom Party and the Austrian People's Party , Jelinek became one of the new cabinet's more vocal critics. Many foreign governments moved swiftly to ostracize Austria's administration, citing
264-472: A jaw injury. As a high school student, Neuwirth took part in composition workshops with Hans Werner Henze and Gerd Kühr . At the age of 16, she met writer Elfriede Jelinek , the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the two artists have since enjoyed an artistically "fruitful collaboration". The then-17-year-old composer named her first commissioned composition Die gelbe Kuh tanzt Ragtime . The work
308-673: A major English language premiere of her play Ein Sportstück by Just a Must theatre company brought her dramatic work to the attention of English-speaking audiences. The following year, in February and March 2013, the Women's Project in New York staged the North American premiere of Jackie , one of her Princess Dramas . Jelinek was a member of Austria's Communist Party from 1974 to 1991. She became
352-554: A number of texts. She frequently expresses herself on political issues more broadly, calling for vigilance in the face of social and political changes (for example, with a speech in front of the Vienna State Opera at a mass protest held on 19 September 2000, entitled "I will not be yodeled out of existence"). Neuwirth has created several full-length music theatre works, including the video opera Lost Highway (2003), based on David Lynch's film; Bählamms Fest (1993/1997), drawing on
396-640: A professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since 2021. She is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts , the Academy of Arts (Berlin) and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music . Neuwirth has long reflected on the everyday life of professional composers, especially women composers, who are marginalized within contemporary art circles. She has conveyed her thoughts on this issue in
440-595: A sound installation for shops along the main square of Deutschlandsberg, Austria (created jointly with Hans Hoffer), and in the sound installation ...le temps désechanté ... ou dialogue aux enfers (2005) at the Place Igor Stravinsky in Paris (near the Stravinsky Fountain ). For this latter work, commissioned in 2005 by IRCAM Paris , a motion-capture camera was used to allow electroacoustic sounds to interact with
484-511: Is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power". She is considered to be among the most important living playwrights of
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#1733085231767528-474: Is multi-faceted, and highly controversial. It has been praised and condemned by leading literary critics . In the wake of the Fritzl case , for example, she was accused of "executing 'hysterical' portraits of Austrian perversity". Likewise, her political activism has encountered divergent and often heated reactions. Despite the controversy surrounding her work, Jelinek has won many distinguished awards; among them are
572-728: Is particularly noted for its performances of music by composers of the German-speaking countries, including Helmut Lachenmann , Wolfgang Rihm , and Hans Zender . Klangforum Wien has been in residence at multiple music festivals, including the Donaueschingen Musiktage , Wiener Festwochen and Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik . The ensemble holds the Professorship in Performance Practice in Contemporary Music at
616-527: Is unappreciated and misunderstood, "because the Jews are dead." She has stressed her Jewish identity as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, claiming a continuity with a Jewish-Viennese tradition that she believes has been destroyed by fascism and is dying out. Jelinek's output has included radio plays, poetry, theatre texts, polemical essays, anthologies, novels, translations, screenplays, musical compositions, libretti and ballets, film and video art. Jelinek's work
660-435: Is where I've always lived because my friends are here and because I've never wanted to leave Vienna. In the end I've been caught up here. Munich is my husband's city and so I've always traveled to and from, and that's been good for our marriage. Despite the author's own differentiation from Austria (due to her criticism of Austria's Nazi past), Jelinek's writing is deeply rooted in the tradition of Austrian literature , showing
704-951: The Ensemble Modern , the ICE Ensemble, the Talea Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Musikfabrik , the Phace Ensemble and the Arditti Quartet . Numerous soloists, including Hakan Hardenberger , Antoine Tamestit , Thomas Larcher , Jochen Kowalski , Robyn Schulkowsky, Marino Formenti, Claire Chase and Andrew Watts have participated in performances of Neuwirth's works. Most of Neuwirth's works have been published by Ricordi and Boosey & Hawkes : Elfriede Jelinek Elfriede Jelinek ( German: [ɛlˈfʁiːdə ˈjɛlinɛk] ; born 20 October 1946)
748-685: The Georg Büchner Prize in 1998; the Mülheim Dramatists Prize in 2002 and 2004; the Franz Kafka Prize in 2004; and the Nobel Prize in Literature , also in 2004. Female sexuality , sexual abuse, and the battle of the sexes in general are prominent topics in her work. Texts such as Wir sind Lockvögel, Baby! ( We are Decoys, Baby! ), Die Liebhaberinnen ( Women as Lovers ) and Die Klavierspielerin ( The Piano Teacher ) showcase
792-803: The Klangforum Wien with the electronics realized at the Institut für Elektronische Musik (IEM). The American premiere of the opera took place at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and featured further performances at Columbia University 's Miller Theatre in New York City, produced by Oberlin Conservatory and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. The surround-sound recording released by Kairos
836-557: The Konzerthaus , which specialises in contemporary classical music . Founded by composer and conductor Beat Furrer in 1985, it is run on collective principles, having no official principal conductor. Sylvain Cambreling is principal guest conductor emeritus. Principal guest conductor is Bas Wiegers [ nl ] since the 2018/2019 concert season. The group is often cited as Austria's leading contemporary music ensemble, and
880-499: The University of Vienna . However, she had to discontinue her studies due to an anxiety disorder , which resulted in self-isolation at her parents' house for a year. During this time, she began serious literary work as a form of therapy. After a year, she began to feel comfortable leaving the house, often with her mother. She began writing poetry at a young age. She made her literary debut with Lisas Schatten ( Lisa's Shadow ) in 1967, and received her first literary prize in 1969. During
924-552: The documenta 12 contemporary art exhibition, for which she produced a sound/film installation. She recently collaborated with French installation, video, and conceptual artist Dominique Gonzales-Foerster on the multimedia installation ...ce qui arrive.… Olga Neuwirth has also composed a number of film scores, including music for the silent films Symphonie diagonale (1924), Maudite soit la Guerre (1914) and City Without Jews (1924), as well as soundtracks to films by Kurt Mayer and Josef Dabernig. The composer also wrote music for
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#1733085231767968-507: The 1960s, she became active politically, read a great deal, and "spent an enormous amount of time watching television". She married Gottfried Hüngsberg on 12 June 1974. I was 27; he was 29. I knew enough men. Sexuality was, strangely, the only area where I emancipated myself early on. Our marriage takes place in two cities. It's a kind of Tale of Two Cities in the Dickensian sense. I've always commuted between Vienna and Munich . Vienna
1012-1137: The Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna State Opera and many others. She was composer in residence at the Salzburg Festival in 1999, the Koninklijk Filharmonisch Orkest van Vlaanderen in Antwerp in 2000, the Lucerne Festival in both 2002 and 2016, the Festival d'Automne in 2011, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Wiener Konzerthaus in 2019. Her works have been performed by the conductors Pierre Boulez , Peter Eötvös, Daniel Harding, Matthias Pintscher, Valerij Gergjev, Susanna Mälkki , François-Xavier Roth and Alan Gilbert, among others. Leading orchestras and ensembles have included Neuwirth's compositions in their programs, including
1056-433: The Freedom Party's alleged nationalism and authoritarianism. The cabinet construed the sanctions against it as directed against Austria as such, and attempted to prod the nation into a national rallying ( Nationaler Schulterschluss ) behind the coalition parties. This provoked a temporary heating of the political climate severe enough for dissidents such as Jelinek to be accused of treason by coalition supporters. In
1100-639: The German language. Elfriede Jelinek was born on 20 October 1946 in Mürzzuschlag , Styria , the daughter of Olga Ilona ( née Buchner), a personnel director, and Friedrich Jelinek. She was raised in Vienna by her Romanian-German Catholic mother and a non-observant Czech Jewish father (whose surname Jelinek means "little deer" in Czech). Her mother's family came from Stájerlakanina , Krassó-Szörény County , Banat , Kingdom of Hungary (now Anina, Romania), and
1144-1168: The Vienna Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker , the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the BBC Symphony Orchestra , the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the NDR Symphony Orchestra , the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain ,
1188-521: The brutality and power play inherent in human relations in a style that is, at times, ironically formal and tightly controlled. According to Jelinek, power and aggression are often the principal driving forces of relationships . Likewise Ein Sportstück ( Sports Play ) explores the darker side of competitive sports. Her provocative novel Lust contains graphic description of sexuality, aggression and abuse. It received poor reviews by many critics, some of whom likened it to pornography. But others, who noted
1232-471: The computer music and audio/acoustics research artist Markus Noisternig. She worked with video artist Tal Rosner to create the interactive installation Disenchanted Island at Centre Pompidou in Paris (2016). She is interested in the relationship between music and visual art and has continually expanded the scope of her activities by writing texts and film scripts, producing short films, and organizing performances and photo series. In 2007, she participated in
1276-641: The feature films Das Vaterspiel by director Michael Glawogger , which was screened at the Berlinale film festival in 2009, and Ich seh, Ich seh by directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, which premiered in 2014 at the Venice International Film Festival . Neuwirth has received commissions from international institutions including Carnegie Hall , the Lucerne Festival , the Salzburg Festival,
1320-428: The influence of Austrian writers such as Ingeborg Bachmann , Marlen Haushofer , and Robert Musil . Editor Friederike Eigler states that Jelinek has three major and inter-related "targets" in her writing: what she views as capitalist consumer society and its commodification of all human beings and relationships, what she views as the remnants of Austria's fascist past in public and private life, and what she views as
1364-448: The mid- to late-1980s, Jelinek was one of many Austrian intellectuals who signed a petition for the release of Jack Unterweger , who was imprisoned for the murder of a prostitute, and who was regarded by intellectuals and politicians as an example of successful rehabilitation. Unterweger was later found guilty of murdering nine more women within two years of his release, and committed suicide after his arrest. Her novel The Piano Teacher
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1408-786: The plunge into unfamiliar regions with all the attendant consequences, is therefore a fundamental mood of her compositions, winding like a red thread through her works. Usually assigned to the category of contemporary classical music , her works since the late 1980s have sought to transcend the genre restrictions imposed by the music business. She has drawn from a range of sources for inspiration, including "art, architecture, literature and music, intellectual history, psychology, natural science, and everyday reality". Her aim has been to create works that are both distinctive and multidimensional. For example, in Le Encantadas o le avventure nel mare delle meraviglie (2014), Neuwirth has been described as creating
1452-600: The power of the cold descriptions of moral failures, considered it to have been misunderstood and undervalued by them. In April 2006, Jelinek spoke out to support Peter Handke , whose play Die Kunst des Fragens ( The Art of Asking ) was removed from the repertoire of the Comédie-Française for his alleged support of Slobodan Milošević . Her work is less known in English-speaking countries. However, in July and August 2012,
1496-531: The same name. She has also written music for historic and contemporary films. Luigi Nono has inspired her both musically and politically. Neuwirth was born in Graz, the daughter of Griseldis Neuwirth and pianist Harald Neuwirth . She is the niece of Gösta Neuwirth and the sister of sculptor Flora Neuwirth. As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on the trumpet but was forced to abandon her original plans to study trumpet after an accident that left her with
1540-515: The sound of wind-up toy instruments on a reinforced metal plate was transmitted into the concert hall's auditorium by means of several loudspeakers, with visuals projected live onto a screen, creating an immersive listening experience. In addition, "prompt texts" for the audience’s behavior, written by Jelinek , were inserted into the work. Neuwirth's works have expanded from the concert hall into public spaces, for example in Talking Houses (1996),
1584-418: The streams of people moving through the square. As the number of passers-by rose, a musical transformation was set in motion. However, the Paris police ultimately ordered the sound installation to be shut down. Neuwirth frequently collaborates with artists working in other disciplines or mediums, such as architect Peter Zumthor (Bregenz 2017), the New York architects of Asymptote Architecture (ZKM 2017), and
1628-502: The systematic exploitation and oppression of women in a capitalist- patriarchal society. Jelinek has claimed in multiple interviews that the Austrian-Jewish satirical tradition has been a formative influence on her writing, citing Karl Kraus , Elias Canetti , and Jewish cabaret in particular. In an interview with Sigrid Löffler , Jelinek claimed that her work is considered an oddity in contemporary Austria, where she claims satire
1672-420: The work of Leonora Carrington; The Outcast, referencing Herman Melville; and American Lulu, her free adaptation of Alban Berg's Lulu . She collaborated with Elfriede Jelinek on the opera "Bählamms Fest." Neuwirth's opera of David Lynch 's film Lost Highway incorporates both live and pre-recorded audio and visual feeds, alongside other electronics. Its premiere took place in Graz in 2003, performed by
1716-732: Was awarded the Diapason d'Or . The UK premiere took place at the Young Vic in London in April 2008, in a co-production with the English National Opera , directed by Diane Paulus and conducted by Baldur Brönnimann . Neuwirth's opera Orlando , based on the novel by Virginia Woolf , is the first full-length opera composed by a woman and commissioned by the Vienna State Opera to be performed in Vienna. The world premiere took place on 8 December 2019. It
1760-634: Was composed for the opening of the steirischer herbst festival in 1985. In 1985/86, she studied music and art at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Elinor Armer . She also studied painting and film at the San Francisco Art College . She continued her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under Erich Urbanner while studying at the Institute for Composition and Electroacoustics. Her master's thesis
1804-535: Was later selected as the world premiere of the year in an international critics' poll conducted by the trade journal Opernwelt . She also has numerous chamber music works released on the Kairos label. Neuwirth's original compositional style is characterized by the use of diverse compositional techniques and hybrid sound materials, with a constant questioning of artistic and sociopolitical norms. She refers to an "art in-between." Stefan Drees remarked: The catastrophic,
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1848-512: Was of a bourgeois background, while her father was a working-class socialist. Her father was a chemist , who managed to avoid persecution during the Second World War by working in strategically important industrial production. However, many of his relatives became victims of the Holocaust . Her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship, was from a formerly prosperous Vienna family. As
1892-418: Was the basis for the 2001 film of the same title by Austrian director Michael Haneke , starring Isabelle Huppert as the protagonist. In 2022, a documentary about Jelinek was created by Claudia Müller, Elfriede Jelinek – Language Unleashed (German: Elfriede Jelinek – Die Sprache von der Leine lassen ). Klangforum Wien The Klangforum Wien is an Austrian chamber orchestra , based in Vienna at
1936-502: Was written on the film score of Alain Resnais's L'Amour à mort . In 1993/94 she studied with Tristan Murail and worked at IRCAM , producing such works as " ...?risonanze!... " for viola d'amore . She received significant inspiration in this period from Adriana Hölszky ( Nicht beirren lassen! Weitermachen! ) and Luigi Nono, who had similarly radical politics, and who she said was a strong influence in her life. Neuwirth has served as
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