aus LICHT - part 3: COOPERATION AND THE OPENING UP OF SPACE

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. 

Highlights from DIENSTAG aus LICHT, MITTWOCH aus LICHT and SONNTAG aus LICHT can be seen in the third part. For instance, INVASION-EXPLOSION, an overwhelming, electronic sound world in which the conflict between Michael and Lucifer is settled. This is followed by WELT-PARLAMENT, ORCHESTER-FINALISTEN and HELIKOPTER-STREICHQUARTETT, and visions of cosmic cooperation are shown. Both the Nederlands Kamerkoor and Cappella Amsterdam perform. Four string players perform high above Amsterdam from helicopters. This part is not to be missed by anyone who wants to see why Stockhausen was the greatest avant-garde composer of the previous century.

MITTWOCHS-GRUSS ** (from MITTWOCH)

electronic composition (12.30 - 1.25 pm)

interval (1.25 - 2.00 pm)

INVASION-EXPLOSIONmitABSCHIED (from DIENSTAG)

interval (3.15 - 4.15 pm)

WELT-PARLAMENT(from MITTWOCH) 

interval (5.00 - 6.00 pm)

ORCHESTER-FINALISTEN (from MITTWOCH)

HELIKOPTER-STREICHQUARTETT (from MITTWOCH)

dinner break (8.10 - 9.25 pm)

ENGEL-PROZESSIONEN (from SONNTAG)

(ends at 10.30 pm)

* times with reservation

**electronic compositions for dedicated listeners in particular

armies battle each other in the theatre space. Lucifer’s forces finally claim victory. Mortally wounded, Michael dies in Eve’s embrace in the solemn PIETÁ, while a frenzied Lucifer celebrates. 

Disputes settled

MITTWOCH is the opera in LICHT in which the three main characters share the stage and finally reconcile. In WELT-PARLAMENT disputes are settled and visions for cosmic cooperation are born.

Airborne

Instrumentalists arrive to audition for a heavenly orchestra in ORCHESTER-FINALISTEN, and four string players literally become airborne, taking off in a helicopter. Via radio links, the HELIKOPTER-STREICHQUARTETT is broadcast into the Gashouder theatre. After returning to Earth, the musicians and pilots take questions from the audience. Seven groups of singers then descend like angels from heaven and move through the audience, bringing a mood of serenity in the ENGELPROZESSIONEN, one of the two scenes fromSONNTAG, the opera concluding the LICHT cycle.

Two armies

The conflict between Michael and Lucifer climaxes in INVASION-EXPLOSION. In an awesome electronic soundscape that draws on Stockhausen’s own reminiscences of the Second World War, two