Ligeti, Painful Penile Survival

LIGETI ­– LEGRAND MACABRE — PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA ESA-PEKKA SALONEN — THÉÂTRE DU CHÂTELET, PARIS — FEBRUARY 1998 — CD

LIGETI ­– LE GRAND MACABRE — SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS OF THE GRAN TEATRE DEL LICEU — MICHAEL BODER — CHORUS MASTER JOSE LUIS BASSO — STAGE DIRECTION ÀLEX OLLE (LA FURA DELS BAUS) IN COLLABORATION WITH VALENTINA CARRASCO — SET DESIGNER: ALFONS FLORES — BARCELONA, SPAIN — NOVEMBER 2011 — DVD

One time is not all the time, and for once I will start with the music. This supposedly anti-opera uses the orchestra and some “instruments” that are not real instruments with great imagination and great creativity. The car horn prelude opens the opera, and a second car horn prelude opens the second scene of the opera. A doorbell prelude opens the second part of the opera, the third scene of it. A simple Interlude will open the fourth scene which is the epilogue. The finale of this epilogue will be a passacaglia. The first three opening pieces are, of course, surprising on an opera stage, but car horns, doorbells, bicycle bells, train noises and many other noises of this industrial and…