LIGETI : LE GRAND MACABRE

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 27th of September 2009 at 3.03 - 5.05 pm

COMPOSER
OVERVIEW (with detailed synopsis)
EXAMPLE Car horn prelude (audio) Act 1.1
EXAMPLE Act 1.2 (video)

LIGETI: Le Grand Macabre, an opera in two acts
Piet the Pot................... Chris Merritt
Amando........................ Frances Bourne
Amanda........................ Ilse Eerens
Nekrotzar..................... Werner Van Mechelen
Astradamors................. Frode Olsen
Mescalina...................... Ning Liang
Venus/Gepopo.............. Barbara Hannigan
Prince Go-Go............... Brian Asawa
Ruffiak.......................... Bernard Villiers
Schobiack..................... Gérard Lavalle
Schabernack................. Jacques Does
White Minister............... Eberhard Lorenz
Black Minister............... Martin Winkler
La Monnaie Chorus & Orch/Leo Hussain
(recorded in La Monnaie, Brussels)

György Ligeti (1923-2006) was Hungarian and Jewish, born in Romania, in Transylvania (I have not noticed any vampires in this opera, but the antagonist does bite a woman's neck and kills her). In 1956 (after the failed Hungarian uprising against Russia) Ligeti moved to Austria (taking citizenship), and he also worked in Germany.

I am in a bind about Ligeti (Latin ligo 'I bind'), and I have never been drawn to his music (I can't think of any of his compositions that have a place in my vast collection of recordings). However, we have all heard examples of his music, in Stanley Kubrick films: 2001 (though the fanfare is by Richard Strauss), The Shining (with mad Jack) and Eyes wide Shut (with Tom cruising and Nicole kidding her man).

Like Messiaen, Ligeti only produced one opera (twice: 1977 and 1996), Le Grand Macabre (French for The Great Macabre) and it is in German, but it has also been performed in Swedish (première in Stockholm), English, French, Italian, and Hungarian. As its title suggests the subject is grim and gruesome, a danse macabre, with Death as the central character, under the alias Nekrotzar. The setting is Breughel-land (an allusion to the apocalyptic paintings) with skyscrapers about to fall (how prophetic!). A comet will strike at midnight.

The metropolis image is conjured up by a prelude of twelve car horns; then we meet Piet, whose occupation is wine-taster (but he does not spit it out); the lovers Amando and Amanda do what lovers love to do, in full view, and their aliases (Spermando and Clitoria) give us fair warning that this is a bawdy show, as well as a bizarre piece of theatrics; as in Der Rosenkavalier the lovers in the first scene are male and female, but played by two women.

The predicted comet strikes, but the characters survive; they know they are existent because they are thirsting for alcohol, in a new version of the formula of Descartes: I drink (rather than think) therefore I am.

A full summary of the plot is available under the heading OVERVIEW above.

This farce has to be seen to be ... believed? understood? appreciated? Well the two examples provided above will lead you to a variety of excerpts from various productions, one in English; but who knows what language this Belgian performance will offer us. At a concert in Finland, Anu Komsi is dressed as a dominatrix (note the paper bag used by a percussionist to make rustling sounds). Regrettably, my powerful Macintosh can not play YOU TUBE stuff without stopping incessantly (!), even the second time round.