European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

New Production of Gyögy Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre at the Munich Opera Festival

Jun. 28, 2024

A new production of György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre opened on June 28 at the Munich Opera Festival at the Bavarian State Opera. The piece thus marks the end of the 2023-2024 season, which began last year on the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth. Kent Nagano conducts the production, staged by Krzysztof Warlikowski.


György Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre | NDR

Ligeti himself described Le Grand Macabre, which premiered in Stockholm in 1978, as an "anti-anti-opera." He was referring to the play with conventions, which he both serves and turns on its head. Ligeti noted:

"I had in mind a strongly schematizing, comic-like stage action, and the music should also be immediate, comic-like, exaggerated, colorful and crazy. The novelty of this musical theater was not to manifest itself in externals of the performance, but in the interior of the music, through the music."

Le Grand Macabre is in repertory at the Bavarian State Opera in the coming season through October 26.  A production is currently underway at the National Theatre in Prague, which will also run into the autumn. Another new production is due to open at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden on September 28.

To learn more about György Ligeti, visit: schott-music.com

György Ligeti
Le Grand Macabre (1975-77, rev. 1996)
opera in four scenes
libretto by Michael Meschke and György Ligeti, after the Michel de Ghelderode play La Balade du Grand Macabre
for coloratura soprano, high soprano, soprano, mezzo-soprano, boy soprano, soprano or countertenor, dramatic mezzo-soprano, high tenor buffo, tenor, 4 baritones, Verdi baritone, bass, and 2 mixed choirs
3(2,3.pic)3(2.ob. d’am., 3.ca)3(2Eb cl, asax, 3.bcl)3(3.cbsn-4.4.btpt.3.0.cbtb-timp.3perc-3chrom. harmonicas(played by brass and percussion members)cel(cemb).konzertflügel(elec. pno.)elec. org.mnd.hp-str
120'

News