Le Grand Macabre

Le Grand Macabre (première 1978) is György Ligeti's only opera to date. The opera has two acts and is sung in english, the libretto being loosely based on a play by the Belgian author Michel De Ghelderode.

Having been described as "musical theater of the absurd" and even as "anti-opera", it is nevertheless a consensus that Ligeti reinvented operatic traditions in its making. From its brief overture, a mixture of rhythmic sounds scored for a dozen car horns, to the closing Passacaglia in mock classical style, the work evolves as collage of sonorities ranging from an ensemble of urban sounds to snippets of manipulated Beethoven, Rossini and Verdi. Ligeti's opera is replete with irony and ambiguities, conveying a deadly serious message in a lightened humorous way.

Its central subject is mortality and its central character is Death, in the form of the character Nekrotzar (meant to be played by a bass-baritone), who arrives in a city of skyscrapers, its streets strewn with litter and populated by vagrants, depicting a land on the verge of an apocalypse. Along with the drunkard and the astrologer, Nekrotzar proceeds to the court of Prince Go-Go, and a series of disjointed scenes raises the question of whether they are witness to the impending doom or it has all been a farce.

Dramatis Personæ

• Piet The Pot
• Amando (Spermando)
• Amanda (Clitoria)
• Nekrotzar
• Astradamors
• Mescalina
• Venus
• Gepopo, Chief of Secret Police
• Prince Go-Go
• White Politician
• Black Politician

Listing

Act I

1. Car Horn Prelude
2. Scene One: Dies Irae
3. Away, you swag-pot!
4. Shut up!
5. Oh...! – Amanda! Can do no more!
6. Ha-ha-ha-ha! Hey! Give me my requisites, slave
7. Melting snow is thy breast
8. Second Car Horn Prelude
9. Scene Two: One! Two! Three! Five!
10. Shapely and attractive figure
11. Venus! Venus!
12. Stop! – Sh!... Quiet, for heaven's sake!
13. Who's there? A Man? – A Man!
14. Finale: Fire and death I bring

Act II

1. Scene Three: Door Bell Prelude
2. Arse licker, arse-kisser!
3. Posture exercises!
4. Tsk... – Pssst! Ha! Head of my Secret Service
5. Ahh! ...Secret cypher!
6. Hurray, hurray! My wife is dead, hurray!
7. Nekrotzar's Entrance
8. Woe! Ooh! For the day of wrath
9. There's no need to fear
10. Up! – Drink! – Up!
11. Galimatias: Hmm! It's delicious
12. Where am I? What time is it?
13. Interlude
14. Scene Four: Ghost Astradamors, are you dead?
15. Mirror Canon
16. Finale. Passacaglia: Ah, it was good

External Links

Website with audio and photos from the Danish première. In English [1], Danish [2], French [3] and German [4]