Achill unter den Mädchen

As the oracle has announced that Achilles will fall in battle, his parents have hidden him on the island of Skyros disguised as a girl. He grows up in the company of the two daughters of King Lycomedes and falls in love with Deidamia, the older of the two girls. He would like to show himself as a man in her company, but is swayed by the necessity of concealment and his awakening male identity. Odysseus has also learned from an oracle that he cannot win the Trojan War without Achilles. He comes to Skyros on his search for Achilles and soon suspects that he is concealed behind the façade of the girl named Pirrha. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to ascertain his identity, he finally unmasks him in a game inciting his jealousy, and Achilles is forced to relinquish his existence as Pirrha and admit his true identity, destined by fate for his role as a warrior. Deidamia has a terrifying vision in which she sees Troy burning.

Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz and Hanns-Joseph Ortheil combine two tales from heroic mythology into a new story Achill unter den Mädchen in which gender identity and educational patterns play a prominent role. Schultz characterises the different layers of identity with elements from different cultures embedded within an overarching symphonic context. Lycomedes is characterised by music reminiscent in its formal austerity of Japanese Gagaku music; Deidamia in contrast is accompanied by music developed from Indian ragas. The music for Odysseus is harsh and undercooled; the ambiguity and insecurity of Achilles is made audible through bitonality which, during the process of coming closer to Odysseus, of becomes more and more attuned to his cold and controlled music.