Le Grand Macabre

Composer: Ligeti, Gyorgy

Librettist/Text Author: Ligeti, Gyorgy

Librettist/Text Author: Meschke, Michael

Conductor: Boder, Michael

Orchestra: Liceu Grand Theatre Orchestra

Chorus: Liceu Grand Theatre Chorus

Chorus Master: Basso, Jose Luis

Amanda: Puche, Ana

Amando: Moraleda, Ines

Astradamors: Olsen, Frode

Black Minister: Butteriss, Simon

Gepopo: Hannigan, Barbara

Mescalina: Liang, Ning

Nekrotzar: Mechelen, Werner van

Piet the Pot: Merritt, Chris

Prince Go-Go: Asawa, Brian

Ruffiak: Diap, Gabriel

Schabernack: Grau, Ramon

Schabiack: Rosales, Miguel

Venus: Hannigan, Barbara

White Minister: Vas, Francisco

Lighting Designer: Praet, Peter van

Stage Director: Olle, Alex

Television Director: Bove, Xavier

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Venue: Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

Playing Time: 02:01:48

Catalogue Number: A93001806

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Barcelona's Grand Teatre del Liceu presents Gyorgy Ligeti's sole opera Le grand macabre in a stunningly imaginative and highly theatrical production by La Fura dels Baus, a production that already scored an enormous success in Brussels, London and Rome and - as Britain's The Independent proclaimed - "only comes along once a decade".

Ligeti's absurd-tragicomical masterpiece of the highest order blends popular theater, comics, pop art, cabaret, caricature and the Apocalypse with fascinating imaginativeness. The orchestra, for example, is enhanced with “instruments” such as car horns and doorbells. Ligeti himself – one of the great composers of the later 20th century – called his work an "anti-anti-opera." Premiered in Stockholm in 1978, the work is based on a play by Michel de Ghelderode (1898-1962) and unfolds in an imaginary land inspired by the famous Dutch painter Pieter Breughel the Elder: Nekrotzar, the Grand Macabre, announces the end of the world; but in a land ruled by eros, alcohol and corruption, his plan to unleash the Apocalypse bursts like a soap bubble. The people continue to lead their lives as before and refuse to be frightened by thoughts of death and a dark future…