Le Grand Macabre - premiere - Schedule, Program & Tickets
Le Grand Macabre - premiere
In English, surtitles in Czech, English
Chorus of the State Opera
Orchestra of the State Opera
National Theater Opera Ballet
György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre is given its Czech premiere. The only opera by the Hungarian-Austrian composer, a major representative of the 20th century avant-garde, is a truly remarkable work that in many respects exceeds what is generally expected of a piece of this genre. Loosely based on the play “La balade du grand macabre” by Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode, Ligeti provocatively described it as an “anti-anti-opera”. Le Grand Macabre presents an extremely bizarre apocalyptic vision of a world gone mad, teeming with characters with such telling names as Nekrotzar, Piet The Pot, Clitoria, Spermando... Ligeti's spectacular opera fresco is set in a fictional city with an equally telling name: Breughelland, which not only shocks with its harsh, scary and perverse images, but is also impressive in terms of the score, whose musical idiom includes conventional instruments, but also a large one variety of completely unprecedented sounds produced by cars. Horns, electric doorbells, a sledgehammer, an alarm clock, paper bags, a tray full of dishes, a pot, a gun and other items.
Le Grand Macabre premiered in Stockholm in 1978. Ligeti later made significant changes to the opera for a production at the 1997 Salzburg Festival.
Subject to change.
Chorus of the State Opera
Orchestra of the State Opera
National Theater Opera Ballet
György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre is given its Czech premiere. The only opera by the Hungarian-Austrian composer, a major representative of the 20th century avant-garde, is a truly remarkable work that in many respects exceeds what is generally expected of a piece of this genre. Loosely based on the play “La balade du grand macabre” by Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode, Ligeti provocatively described it as an “anti-anti-opera”. Le Grand Macabre presents an extremely bizarre apocalyptic vision of a world gone mad, teeming with characters with such telling names as Nekrotzar, Piet The Pot, Clitoria, Spermando... Ligeti's spectacular opera fresco is set in a fictional city with an equally telling name: Breughelland, which not only shocks with its harsh, scary and perverse images, but is also impressive in terms of the score, whose musical idiom includes conventional instruments, but also a large one variety of completely unprecedented sounds produced by cars. Horns, electric doorbells, a sledgehammer, an alarm clock, paper bags, a tray full of dishes, a pot, a gun and other items.
Le Grand Macabre premiered in Stockholm in 1978. Ligeti later made significant changes to the opera for a production at the 1997 Salzburg Festival.
Subject to change.