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Last broadcast on Sat, 14 Nov 2009, 18:00 on BBC Radio 3.
Synopsis
Presented by Ivan Hewett.
In a performance given at Le Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Leo Hussain conducts Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre with an international cast in a production by innovative Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus.
Ligeti's anarchic opera centres on a set of 'stock' characters, including a pair of young lovers, a cuckolded husband and domineering wife, a drunk, a pair of corrupt politicians and a corpulent prince. They live in a timeless dystopian 'Breughelland', visited by Death who promises the end of world but, though drink and incompetence, fails to deliver.
6.00pm
Ivan Hewett introduces Ligeti's 'anti-anti-opera' - as the composer himself called it - with the help of Ligeti's biographer Richard Steinitz.
6.10pm
Le Grand Macabre: Scenes 1 and 2
6.55pm
Richard Steinitz reveals more about the hidden depths and difficult gestation of this remarkable piece of theatre.
7.10pm
Le Grand Macabre: Scenes 3 and 4
Piet the Pot ...... Chris Merritt (tenor)
Amando ...... Frances Bourne (mezzo-soprano)
Amanda ...... Ilse Eerens (soprano)
Nekrotzar ...... Werner Van Mechelen (baritone)
Astradamors ...... Frode Olsen (bass)
Mescalina ...... Ning Liang (mezzo-soprano)
Venus ...... Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
Prince Go-Go ...... Brian Asawa (countertenor)
Ruffiak ...... Bernard Villiers (baritone)
Schobiack ...... Gerard Lavalle (baritone)
Schabernack ...... Jacques Does (baritone)
White Minister ...... Eberhard Lorenz (actor)
Black Minister ...... Martin Winkler (actor)
Gepopo/Chief of Secret Police ...... Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Leo Hussain (conductor)
Contains strong language.
Production Image
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Production image
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Nekrotzar and Piet the Pot
Werner Van Mechelen as Nekrotzar and Chris Merritt as Piet the Pot.
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Prince Go-Go
Brian Asawa as Prince Go-Go
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Amando and Amanda
Frances Bourne as Amando and Ilse Eerens as Amanda.
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Astradamors and Mescalina
Frode Olsen as Astradamors and Ning Liang as Mescalina
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Gepopo
Barbara Hannigan as Gepopo.
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Production image
Photo: Bernd Uhlig
Synopsis - In Breughelland in some century or other.
Scene 1 - A graveyard
Piet the Pot watches Amanda and Amando look for a spot where they can have sex. Suddenly Nekrotzar, the Grand Macabre, appears. Piet laughs with Nekrotzar, but the latter proclaims that he is Death and that that very night he will destroy the world with the help of a comet. Nekrotzar recruits Piet as his helper. Meanwhile, Amanda and Amando go and lie in an empty grave. Nekrotzar and Piet set off for the capital.
Scene 2 - In the house of the court astrologer Astradamors.
The sadistic Mescalina has her husband Astradamors under her thumb. Having tyrannised him, she makes him study the stars. Mescalina falls asleep and dreams that the goddess Venus sends her a more potent lover than her husband. Nekrotzar appears together with Venus. He responds to Mescalina's appeal but kills her during violent sex. Astradmors is happy to be rid of her. Nekrotzar proclaims the end of the world. Together with Piet and Astradamors, he leaves for Prince Go-Go's palace
Synopsis continued
Scene 3 - Prince Go-Go's court
Prince Go-Go is patronised by two ministers, the White Minister and the Black Minister. Gepopo, Chief of the Secret Police, comes to warn Go-Go that an angry mob is on its way to the palace. The ministers try to pacify the mob, but the people want to see the prince. Go-Go addresses the people and blames everything on his ministers. Meanwhile Astradamors has arrived at the palace; now rid of his wife, he expresses joy with Prince Go-Go. However, when a siren is heard, Go-Go takes fright.
Nekrotzar appears with Piet and proclaims the end of the world. The people are afraid. Piet and Astradamors get Nekrotzar drunk. Nekrotzar enumerates his wrong-doings. The comet is now alarmingly close. Nekrotzar announces that he will destroy the world, but falls asleep in a drunken stupor.
Synopsis - end
Scene 4 - A graveyard
Piet and Astradamors believe themselves to be dead and imagine they are in heaven while Go-Go fears he is the only survivor. Ruffiack, Schobiack and Schabernack appear, intent on killing Go-Go. Nektrotzar awakens from his drunken sleep and is very disappointed to find that he has not destroyed the world. Mescalina - who was only seemingly dead - suddenly appears and hurls herself angrily at Nekrotzar; Ruffiack and Schobiack only just manage to prevent her murdering him. Schabernack brings in the two ministers, who beg for mercy. The ministers and Mescalina blame each other, and a free-for-all breaks out. Piet and Astradadomrs still think they are in heaven, but when they get thirsty, they realise they are still alive. Nekrotzar now realised that his plan has not worked and disappears. Amando and Amanda reappear.
Finally everyone sings the moral of the story: 'Fear not to die, good people all! No one knows when his hour will fall! And when it comes, then let it be .... Farewell till then, live merrily in cheerfulness!'
Broadcast
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Sat 14 Nov 200918:00
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