That was György Ligeti speaking about his opera Le Grand Macabre, in a 1978 interview with Herman Sabbe. Almost sounds sweet, doesn’t it? One little snag: to get to that end, you’re going to have to endure — or better yet, revel in — the hellish, absurd and grotesque. But Ligeti leads you through all this with a gleam, wink and half-smile, and the end result is a hellishly good time.
Since its 1978 premiere Le Grand Macabre has had a wealth of performances all around the world; yet it’s only now that New York is getting its first full and fully-staged presentation. Three nights only, May 27 to May 29, at Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center, NYC). The New York Philharmonic has quite a page devoted to the whole event with information on the full cast, all kinds of special information on the production, and plenty of preview sound clips. It’s also where you can buy tickets — except for a couple lucky couples…
That’s right, we here at S21 have been blessed with two pairs of tickets that we need to give away to some happy readers, for the Thursday May 27th performance . All you need to do is be the first person to email the correct answer to one of two questions, the second of which will come tomorrow, but the first of which is here right now:
There is a notorious piece by Ligeti, for 100 of the same ‘instrument.’ What is that instrument?
Answers to: sequenza21@gmail.com
If you miss out on this one, be watching for tommorrow’s post and your second question and chance. Good luck!