I've been listening to this on heavy rotation lately, I love it. It's becoming a favorite opera really quickly.
There are many moments that connect to me as a fan of Xenakis, Zappa, Kagel and The Residents.
The humor is through the roof, the composition techniques and uses of contrasting pastiche's is superb.
Anyone else a fan of this masterpiece? 8)
I'm not a very adequate opera fan. I mean, I love the stuff, but people always tell you that listening to opera doesn't make you an opera fan unless you're also sipping a glass of wine with the libretto in hand, etc.
Well, this was one of the few operas that I happened to have an English libretto around for my very first listen, and yeah. Nothing like it. Nowhere else can you find sublime classical music and quotes like "I'm in deep shit!" in the same place.
I really love it. Admittedly I am more familiar with the original version. I do want to get that DVD of it, but it is so expensive!
One of conductor Alan Gilbert's great triumphs with the New York Philharmonic was the 2010 semi-staged performance, directed by Doug Fitch, with some outstanding singers including Barbara Hannigan as Gepopo, and Anthony Roth Costanzo as Prince Go-Go. Wish they had released it on DVD, though some kind soul has uploaded the audio on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJXTkIC4Gl0 (Act I)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVLxFHqzCqs (Act II)
Here's a video excerpt. Again, a pity they didn't release the entire thing, which was imaginative almost beyond belief, considering the budget they obviously had to work with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXn3B0vpcZ8
--Bruce
I remember that! It was around then that I was just getting into Ligeti. I really wish to have seen it in full, but I am on the other side of the world. :(
Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on August 09, 2016, 07:29:54 PM
That is my intention soon too, just like Stockhausen's Ring Cycle. YouTube will not suffice for the full immersion, only partially. Though I'm enjoying it as audio-only for now.... ;D
Is it even possible to get DVDs of Licht? Licht takes a long time to get through.........Stockhausen is a wonderful composer but spending a week with Licht could be a bit much for me! Plus very expensive.
Quote from: Brewski on August 09, 2016, 07:21:12 PM
One of conductor Alan Gilbert's great triumphs with the New York Philharmonic was the 2010 semi-staged performance, directed by Doug Fitch, with some outstanding singers including Barbara Hannigan as Gepopo, and Anthony Roth Costanzo as Prince Go-Go. Wish they had released it on DVD, though some kind soul has uploaded the audio on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJXTkIC4Gl0 (Act I)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVLxFHqzCqs (Act II)
Here's a video excerpt. Again, a pity they didn't release the entire thing, which was imaginative almost beyond belief, considering the budget they obviously had to work with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXn3B0vpcZ8
--Bruce
I agree thoroughly with my old buddy Brewski. That performance was probably the single high point of Alan Gilbert's tenure with the NYP, and it is a shame no complete video was made. Whatever the musical merits of the opera, I think it pales unless seen; and though I can't speak to the budget, what the production group (called Giants are Small) accomplished was utterly miraculous.
Quote from: Thatfabulousalien on August 13, 2016, 03:03:06 PM
I tend to see the Ring and The Licht as very similar things (in conception) but yet very different.
You know Wagner's Licht Cycle?
But this thread is not about Wagner or Stockhausen
Threads are about whatever they want to be.
http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,25952.msg982621.html#msg982621
Wagner did stipulate Licht-Alberich as an alternative name for Wotan.
A version in youtube, from Barcelona's Liceu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W72pJ7Cn_WI
I love Ligeti but this opera I find very uningratiating - Having seen it live twice, I also don't think it works as a piece of drama.
I'm with Guido, but will say there are some individual moments here and there that are pretty neat, but, overall, I'm not enthralled by the work.