Was ihr wollt

Premiere at the Burgtheater on December 22, 2010. A recording from the Burgtheater in 2011 (in an 110-minute TV version)

In Illyria, time moves at a different pace: Shakespeare’s fictional kingdom is a land of leisure and boredom. No one works; people live for music, drinking, love, and, above all, melancholy. It is only with the arrival of the shipwrecked Viola that this melancholy-stricken place comes to life; Illyria awakens—and with verve. Deeply grieving for her twin brother Sebastian, who appears to have drowned in the ocean, Viola disguises herself as a man for her own protection and enters the service of Duke Orsino. He is intoxicated by his love for Countess Olivia as if by a drug and nearly drowns in narcissistic longing. Viola is tasked with serving as his messenger of love and carries out her duties so professionally that the Countess falls for her on the spot—while Viola herself loses her heart to Orsino. But the puritanical steward Malvolio, the drunkard Sir Toby Belch, and Andrew Whiteface, a knight of rather pitiful appearance, also indulge in self-deceptive hopes, all of which are commented on with lucid wit by the fool Feste. When Sebastian, who has survived the shipwreck, suddenly reappears, events come to a head.