(no subject)
Looking forward to getting back to uni and studying Stockhausen's Licht, a series of 7 operas for each day of the week. Sounds fairly mental...
Dienstag aus LICHT
Karlheinz Stockhausen
1977-1991
Opera for 17 musical performers
(3 solo voices, 10 solo instrumentalists, 4 dancer-mimes)
actors, mimes, choir, modern orchestra, (14 instruments), tapes
Tuesday is the Day of War between Michael and Lucifer
Dienstag's Gruss / Tuesday Greeting (1987/88)
solo soprano, 9 trumpets, 9 trombones, 2 synthesizer players, choir
At the back of the auditorium two choirs (each with its own brass ensemble, synthesizer player and conductor) perform a Peace Greeting. The Luzifer ensemble, wearing red and black, deny the existence of God and demand peace and freedom on those terms. The Michael ensemble, wearing blue and wanting peace and freedom in God, engages in a musical fight and it is left to a solo soprano to attempt a resolution.
"May he who has God and also he who denys God love his neighbour...
That gives peace, freedom".
Act 1:
Jahreslauf vom Dienstag / Course of The Years of Tuesday
(1977/91)
solo tenor, solo bass
4 dancer/mimes, actor-singer, 3 mimes, little girl, beautiful woman, modern orchestra, tape
Luzifer challenges Michael to a game, "Course of The Years". Luzifer will try to stop time itself, while Michael will attempt to keep it going.
Time is represented by four actors (runners) who traverse the four numerals that make up the date. The runner for the millenium digit moves the most slowly while the year runner must move very quickly indeed, to show the passing of time. The four time layers (one for each digit in the date) are musically realized by different instruments: 3 harmoniums for the millennia. 3 piccolos and an anvil for the centuries. 3 soprano saxophones and bongo for the decades. Harpsichord, guitar, and bass drum, for the years.
Four times, Luzifer tempts the performers to stop playing, so time freezes:
1. Flowers for the performers. 2. A delicious meal. 3. A monkey in a car. 4. A beautiful woman in a nightclub scene.
Michael finds four ways to restart the music:
1. Audience applause 2:.A lion to bite the runners 3. A 10,000 mark prize 4. A wild thunderstorm
With the game over, and the prizes awarded, Lucifer challenges Michael to a much tougher fight.
Act 2:
Invasion-Explosion mit Abschied / Invasion-Explosion with Farewell
(1990/91)
solo soprano, solo tenor, solo bass
3 trumpets (1 also plays flugelhorn), 3 trombones, 2 synthesizer players, 2 percussionists,
6 trumpets, 6 trombones, choir, 8 track tape
With eight speakers placed in the corners of the cuboid musical space, the electronic music represents the bombs, missiles and aeroplanes of a battle scene around above and below the audience. The stage is blocked off by a mountain side. Lucifer's troops, in red and black, have trombones and are led by a bass singer. They attack the precipice, revealing it as a camoufaged metal wall, with trumpet bells protruding from within. Michael's fighters have trumpets, their commander is a solo tenor and they wear blue and black. Both sides have a synthesizer and a percussion player, carrying amplifiers and loudspeakers with them. During the fierce battle the metal wall is torn down by welding torches and a crystal wall is revealed. It is clear that Luzifer's forces wish to demonstrate that there is no world beyond the wall.
There is a ceasefire while one trumpeter lies injured. A nurse tends to him and while he lies across her lap he also appears standing as two more larger images behind the nurse. Having been revealed as Michael he plays the flugelhorn solo "Pietà" accompanied by the nurse (Eve soprano).
The battle resumes and the crystal wall is finally destroyed by massive explosions.
Out of the cloud of dust a strange glass world (Jenseits/Beyond) is revealed. It has a conveyor belt carrying war toys in front of the singers. The singers are using croupier rakes to remove the toys selectively from the belt, and are tallying the losses for each side.
With a flourish a synthesizer player (Synthi-Fou) spins towards the glass world. He has huge ears, sunglasses and a long nose. His colourful music distracts the singers from their war games, and they accompany him with their voices, and begin to dance, transported by the happy music. Synthi-Fou takes a bow and Dienstag comes to an end.