Eternal Orlando - Orchestre Métropolitain

Dates and Locations Date Location Choose

Tuesday
November 26th
7:30 PM

Maison Symphonique de Montréal

Symphonic personalities

Curious

Program

Claudio MONTEVERDI

Orfeo, Toccata

Duration: approx. 2 minutes
Georg Friedrich HANDEL

Royal Fireworks Music, Overture and Peace

Duration: approx. 10 minutes
Joseph HAYDN

Symphony No. 96 “The Miracle,” Vivace

Duration: approx. 3 minutes
Piotr Ilitch TCHAÏKOVSKI

Serenade for Strings, Élégie

Duration: approx. 8 minutes
Erik SATIE

Gymnopedie no. 1

Duration: approx. 5 minutes
Ernest CHAUSSON

Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Interlude

Duration: approx. 3 minutes
Ethel SMYTH

The Wreckers Overture

Duration: approx. 6 minutes
Nathalie JOACHIM

Had To Be: Cello Concerto (Canadian premiere, co-commissioned by OM, Spoleto Festival and New York Philharmonic)

Duration: approx. 24 minutes

Media

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando is a timeless character. Eternally young, he changes lives and genders but remains fascinated by art. While the novel tells the history of English literature, the theatrical adaptation—incorporating symphonic music and directed by the great Lorraine Pintal—delves into the evolution of music.

The orchestra will accompany Orlando throughout his travels and romantic escapades, from the court of Elizabeth I, with music from the time of Handel to tsarist Russia with Tchaikovsky.

Approximate duration of the concert: 1 hour, thirty-five minutes. Please note that this concert is presented without an intermission.

Pre-concert Experience

Works

Claudio MONTEVERDI

1567-1643

Orfeo, Toccata

Georg Friedrich HANDEL

1685-1759

Royal Fireworks Music, Overture and Peace

YOUTH

We meet Orlando, a young teenager whose soul is “made from two forces, feminine and masculine. Two equal forces. Only whose coexistence could allow for creation.” In awe of nature and human emotion, the young poet moors his heart to a large oak tree.

He will soon meet one of the most important figures in his very long life, Queen Elizabeth I. Handel’s famous orchestral suite, Royal Fireworks, sets the scene for the royal court. There’s a wrinkle in time here, as the composer arrived at the English court over a century after the Queen’s reign had ended. But this music, now etched in history, beautifully illustrates the power dynamics that shaped its creation and the influence royalty wielded over artistic production.

Commissioned by King George II, Handel was limited to writing exclusively for wind instruments and percussion, which did not align with his artistic preferences. His Majesty wanted only military instruments. As a result, the composer had to comply with the King’s wishes but later rearranged Royal Fireworks for a full orchestra. This is the version you’ll be hearing at the concert.

As she supports the careers of countless musicians and composers, Elizabeth I takes Orlando under her wing. She grants him land, brings him into her court, and spares him from military service and war to keep him by her side. Feeling betrayed by men—“those whose only qualification is to not be born women”—she dies during a harsh winter in London during a grand carnival, which she had organized.

Joseph HAYDN

1732-1809

Symphony No. 96 “The Miracle,” Vivace

THE TRANSFORMATION

This is when the protagonist undergoes his major transformation, illustrated through music with the final movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, aptly known as the “Miracle Symphony.” This symphony’s title originates from an incident during the premiere of another Haydn symphony in London. A chandelier fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing audience members who had fortunately stood up to get a closer look at the composer and conductor.

For Orlando, it’s an entirely different miracle. When the protagonist awakes from his slumber, he discovers he has become a woman. Initially pleased with this change, Orlando hits the road and meets an archduke at an inn. However, she is quickly repulsed by his remarks and comments. For the first time in her life, she confronts misogyny and experiences how women are treated. This allows her to understand the secrets and weaknesses of both genders clearly.

But because of her situation, she takes refuge in her room, writing poetry and prose. Orlando writes until dawn, grateful to escape the marital and maternal obligations imposed on other women. She doesn’t miss being out in society.

But there comes a day when her inspiration runs dry, and she feels tempted to marry. With no one to lean on, she stumbles and falls asleep, her ear to the ground.

Piotr Ilitch TCHAÏKOVSKI

1840-1893

Serenade for Strings, Élégie

LOVE

When Orlando meets his great love, the Russian princess Sasha, Vita Sackville joins the tale. Vita, the author’s muse and lover, exchanged countless letters with Virginia Woolf. This production draws on their correspondence as well as the novel, juxtaposing the two love stories: Orlando and Sasha, Virginia and Vita… Love stories that transcend gender and time. Only feelings matter.

Tchaikovsky, the ultimate Russian Romantic composer, provides the score to capture the passion and thrill of this encounter. The third movement of his Serenade for Strings, titled “Elegy,” features a main theme that is both passionate and dreamlike, at times infused with a touch of nostalgia. It’s a particularly expressive work, a perfect accompaniment to the excitement of a first love.

Following his heart, Orlando asks Sasha to run away with him. He tells her to meet him at midnight and waits… in vain. Hurt by the rejection, he withdraws to his estates, where he wallows in despair and resigns himself to death, falling into a deep sleep.

Erik SATIE

1866-1925

Gymnopedie no. 1

THE DREAM

Then, Satie’s music ushers us into a dream. Gymnopédies is one of his most well-known works. Ethereal and delicate, Satie’s Gymnopédies were originally written as slow waltzes for solo piano. The pieces were later arranged for orchestra
by Debussy. The melody moves from the flute to the oboe while the strings play softly, enhancing the piece’s dreamlike quality.

Two people appear to Orlando in a dream: Princess Sasha and the Archduke, representing the feminine and the masculine,
respectively. They both question how Orlando fits into each gender role, not recognizing them as one of their own. They’re both right and wrong. Orlando, in the centuries that follow, is sometimes a man, sometimes< a woman, trading skirts for pants according to their will, sometimes in the same day.

Ernest CHAUSSON

1855-1899

Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Interlude

Ethel SMYTH

1858-1944

The Wreckers Overture

LEAVING YOUR MARK

“Poetesses do not die; they haunt us.” Orlando is no longer here, yet she is still with us, transcending the ages like Virginia Woolf, whom Vita misses. She is a beacon, a shining star in the night. Her voice embodies those of the women she worked to free—those who remained trapped and whose cries still linger.

At this point, as Orlando meets Virginia Woolf, the concert’s musical journey arrives at the beginning of the 20th century with a composition by Ethel Smyth. This English composer, who had a romantic relationship with Virginia Woolf, challenged social norms. Overtly queer, she smoked cigars, wore tweed suits and rode bicycles, an activity that was considered improper for respectable women at the time.

The “Ouverture” to her opera The Wreckers conjures both the waves crashing against the coastal reefs and the harshness of the religion that governs village life in the opera. In this story, a pastor convinces the inhabitants of a village to sink and loot ships, and that their actions are righteous. When a young couple starts warning crews to save them, the villagers hunt them down, lock them up and sentence them to death. This story reflects the ongoing discrimination faced by members of LGBTQ+ communities and the religious justifications some use to rationalize their hostility.

Andréanne Moreau

Nathalie JOACHIM

Had To Be: Cello Concerto (Canadian premiere, co-commissioned by OM, Spoleto Festival and New York Philharmonic)

Performed in its Canadian premiere, Nathalie Joachim’s cello concerto Had to Be was jointly commissioned by the Orchestre Métropolitain, the New York Philharmonic, the Chautauqua Institution and the Spoleto Festival. This is composer Nathalie Joachim’s first work for full orchestra and solo instrument, written specifically for rising cello star Seth Parker Woods.

While the first half of Eternal Orlando bridges the divide between femininity and masculinity, challenging gender norms, this concerto pushes the boundaries of Western symphonic music by integrating stylistic features drawn from Afro-American and African musical traditions. Had to Be taps into the diverse musical heritage of the African diaspora, establishing the work as a powerful hymn to freedom and liberation. The first movement, “Homegoing,” begins with a small ensemble backstage performing a melody inspired by the joyful funeral marches of the Caribbean. Throughout the movement, the soloist interjects with emotive melodies that evoke African American gospel hymns.

The movement titled “Flare” merges early twentieth-century jazz with the polyrhythms found
in West African music. Led by the bold sounds of brass, woodwinds and percussion, the orchestra dances in tandem with the soloist. Calm returns with the closing movement, “With Grace,” which embraces a minimalist style. The orchestra invokes a repeated poetic incantation, while the cello resists the tension, singing angelic prayers that soar above the chaos. As a whole, Had to Be represents the complex relationships between gender, ethnicity, class and style. The work is a tribute to our ongoing commitment to freedom.

Andréanne Moreau