aus LICHT - part 1: MICHAEL

A marathon performance will be staged of a large portion of the LICHT cycle, composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Featuring selected highlights from the seven operas – one for each day of the week – it will offer a spectacular overview of Stockhausen's masterpiece. The three parts of aus LICHT can also be visited seperately. 

Archangel Michael is the central figure in the first part of aus LICHT, which consists of scenes from DONNERSTAG aus LICHT. This is the shortest and most narrative of the three parts of aus LICHT. It includes MICHAELs JUGEND and MICHAELs REISE UM DIE ERDE – about Michael’s childhood with a mentally-ill mother and a father who cannot cope with life, his life-changing discovery of music and his cosmic journey in search of Eve. Michael, Lucifer and Eve appear in various forms: as singers, dancers and basset-horn, trompet and trombone players. The audience is immersed in a monumental musical universe with the electronic work UNSICHTBARE CHÖRE as the epilogue, played over eight speakers surrounding the audience.

DONNERSTAGS-GRUSS

MICHAELsJUGEND

interval (9.00 - 10.00 pm)

MICHAELs REISE UM DIE ERDE

DONNERSTAGS-ABSCHIED

interval (11.15 - 11.30 pm)

UNSICHTBARE CHÖRE**

electronic composition (11.30 pm - 00.15 am) 

All compositions are from DONNERSTAG.

* times with reservation

** electronic compositions for dedicated listeners in particular

of the opera DONNERSTAG are devoted to Michael’s youth with his mentally-unbalanced mother and a father ill-equipped to deal with life. Michael passes an examination to enter the conservatory and is reborn as a musician. 

Cosmic journey

In MICHAELs REISE UM DIE ERDE, Michael travels around the world, mocked and ridiculed along the way, and eventually meets Eve, his true love. Leaving the Earth behind, they undertake a cosmic journey and musical joining. In these scenes the opera’s protagonists reveal that they can take on various guises – of dancers, trumpet and horn players, but also of musical abstractions manifested in familiar melodic ‘formulae’. Eve and Michael also adopt various roles, from mother and son to lovers.

Invisible choirs

The audience is swept into a musical universe where invisible choirs fill the space. This opera is presaged by a brief overture, the DONNERSTAGS-GRUSS, and concludes with the ABSCHIED, played by five trumpets dispersed in the space.

Most scenic and narrative

This first opera is the most scenic and narrative of the trilogy, with the cycle growing more ritualistic as Stockhausen progressed.

Rebirth

Michael’s musical DNA is a thirteen-tone formula; one more than the twelve black and white keys of a piano octave. Two whole scenes