Mittwoch aus Licht

Karlheinz Stockhausen on Wednesday, 20 April 2005 in his garden in Kürten

Mittwoch aus Licht (Wednesday from Light) is an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a greeting, four scenes, and a farewell. It was the sixth of seven to be composed for the opera cycle Licht: die sieben Tage der Woche (Light: The Seven Days of the Week), and the last to be staged. It was written between 1995 and 1997, and first staged in 2012.

History

Rupert Huber, conductor of the premieres of Welt-Parlament and Michaelion in 1996 and 1998, respectively

The four component scenes were separately commissioned and premiered:

The staged premiere of Mittwoch was given by the Birmingham Opera Company on what would have been the composer's 84th birthday, Wednesday 22 August 2012 at the Argyle Works, a former factory in Digbeth, Birmingham, as part of the London 2012 Festival, with further performances on 23, 24, and 25 August (Anon. 2012; Brown 2012; Clements 2012). The director was Graham Vick, music director Kathinka Pasveer, designer Paul Brown, lighting Giuseppe di Iorio, and choreography Ron Howell. The production went on to win the 2012 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera and Music Theatre.

Roles (staged premiere)

Interior of the Argyle Works, shortly before the dress rehearsal of Mitwoch on 21 August 2012
Director Graham Vick
Music director Kathinka Pasveer
Role Performer Premiere cast
World Parliament
The Representatives chorus Ex Cathedra,
Jeffrey Skidmore (chorus master)
President tenor Ben Thapa
Substitute President/Coloratura Eve soprano Elizabeth Drury
Janitor actor Khalid Butt
sound projection Kathinka Pasveer
Orchestra Finalists
Oboist oboe Dan Bates
Cellist cello Jonathan Rees
Clarinetist clarinet Vicky Wright
Bassoonist bassoon Amy Harman
Violinist violin Debs White
Tubist tuba Ian Foster
Flutist flute Karin de Fleyt
Trombonist trombone Andrew Connington
Violist viola Bridget Carey
Trumpeter trumpet Bruce Nockles
Bassist double bass Jeremy Watt
Hornist horn Mark Smith
Mummy percussion David Waring
actor Annice Boparai
actor Julie James
actor Luke Elliott
actor Vicki Taylor
actor Nathan Queeley-Dennis
dancer/actor Nathan Lafayette
actor Tanisha Parmer
actor Harry Sidhu
actor Beth Dyson
actor Sara
actor Sultan DiMaggio Hussain
actor Thom Udall
actor Emma O'Brien
actor Claire Eggison
actor Leonard Finch
sound projection Kathinka Pasveer
Helicopter String Quartet
First Violinist violin Emma Smith (Elysian Quartet)
Second Violinist violin Jennymay Logan (Elysian Quartet)
Violist viola Vincent Sipprell (Elysian Quartet)
Cellist cello Laura Moody (Elysian Quartet)
helicopter pilot Miles Fletcher
helicopter pilot Will Samuelson
helicopter pilot Alistair Badman
helicopter pilot Nigel Barton
helicopter pilot Chris Holland (alternate)
Moderator moderator DJ Nihal
sound projection Ian Dearden
Michaelion
Operator bass Michael Leibundgut
Lucicamel actors Nathan Lafayette,
Marie Louise Crawley,
Emma Hollick (cover)
Flutist flute Chloé l'Abbé
Basset Hornist basset horn Fie Schouten
Trumpeter trumpet Marco Blaauw
Trombonut trombone Stephen Menotti
Synthesizer synthesizer Antonio Pérez Abellán
The Delegates chorus London Voices,
Ben Parry (chorus master)
Delegate actor Nadia Kemp-Sayfi
Delegate actor Liam Hall
Delegate actor Lizzie Hodges
Delegate actor Jake Dorrell
Delegate actor Armond Kurti
Delegate actor Rushaun Cookhorn
sound projection Kathinka Pasveer

Synopsis

Setting for scene 1, Welt-Parlament, at the world premiere, 22 August 2012
Two bactrian camels during an intermission in the dress rehearsal for Mittwoch (Birmingham Opera, 21 August 2012)

Wednesday is the day of cooperation and reconciliation among Michael, Eve, and Lucifer, and its exoteric colour is bright yellow (Stockhausen 1989b, 200). The following list of 24 "scenic features" of the whole opera is found in the preface to the score of its final scene (Stockhausen 2002, III and V):

  1. Light spirits: Eve, Michael, and Lucifer
  2. Divine principles: intuition and harmony
  3. Theme: love, friendship, and cosmic solidarity
  4. Ritual: beauty and art
  5. Beings: humans and the guardian angel Raphael
  6. Element: air
  7. Sound: singing
  8. Voices: soprano, tenor, and bass
  9. Instruments: basset horn with flute, trumpet, trombone
  10. Organ: brain, speech organ
  11. Sense: sight (especially the right eye), pure reason
  12. Centre: between the eyes, face, clairvoyance
  13. Awareness: understanding, vision, spiritual comprehension
  14. Colour: bright yellow, iridescence of all colours.
  15. Scents: mastic and frankincense
  16. Precious stones: yellow zircon, topaz
  17. Metal: mercury
  18. Flower: golden yellow rudbeckia
  19. Shrub: forsythia
  20. Tree: maple, Japanese maples
  21. Animals: dove, camel
  22. Number: 8
  23. Planet: Mercury
  24. Symbol:

Mittwoch is in four scenes, which are preceded by a greeting and followed by a farewell.

Mittwochs-Gruß

The Wednesday Greeting consists of the electronic music from the fourth scene, Michaelion, and is played in the foyer amidst flues, winds, blowers, kites, balloons, and flying doves (Stockhausen 2002, III and V).

Scene 1: Welt-Parlament

The President (Ben Thapa) convenes the World Parlament (Birmingham Opera production, 24 August 2012)

The World Parliament convenes in a session above the clouds, and the subject for debate is love. As the parliamentarians arrive via transparent elevators at the top floor of the skyscraper or floating glass dome, helicopters and doves occasionally pass by in the blue sky beyond. The debate is carried on in unknown languages, with occasional lapses into intelligibility in the local language. Delegates rise to present their interpretations of love, with the President commenting on each view. When a janitor interrupts with the news that an illegally parked car is about to be towed away, the President realises it is his, and rushes out. A coloratura soprano is elected temporary President, and the debate is continued. After a final large vowel spiral, the parliamentarians synchronously declare the central theme of the opera: "World parliament Wednesday from Light, day of reconciliation, love". The session is adjourned, all rise and exit while singing further attributes of Wednesday ("day of spaces", "day of women's rights", "day of Mercury", "day of reconciliation", "day of flying", "day of new languages", etc.) on a G♭. Unsure where he should exit, the fattest bass stops, turns to the audience in embarrassment, and before leaving stutters, "Now the next scene would follow".

Scene 2: Orchester-Finalisten

Orchester-Finalisten: during the cello solo, oboe (Dan Bates) and double-bass (Jeremy Watt) above an airport at the sea (Birmingham Opera production, 21 August 2012).

Eleven instrumentalists compete for posts in an orchestra, while floating high in the air. Telescopic observation reveals a variety of airborne scenes: a cathedral roof, aeroplanes flying over the sea, ships in a harbour, etc. In the last solo, the double-bass player becomes convulsed in an obsessive-compulsive fit of scraping and groaning, until the appearance of the mysterious figure of a mummy who, with a stroke on a Chinese gong, releases the bassist from his affliction (Kohl 2008). After all auditions have been completed, a horn player unexpectedly enters the hall, playing a signal, after which all of the players fly upward in a tutti finale.

The solos are accompanied by electronic and concrete music in octophonic spatial projection, and each is associated with a particular image:

The mummy (David Waring) releases the bassist (Jeremy Watt) from his obsessive-compulsive fit (Birmingham Opera, 23 August 2012)

Scene 3: Helikopter-Streichquartett

DJ Nihal (back to camera) introduces the Elysian Quartet before they perform the Helicopter String Quartet on 23 August 2012 (Birmingham Opera)

The four musicians of a string quartet are first introduced to the audience by a moderator, who describes the technical details of the performance. The players then walk or are driven to four waiting helicopters, followed by video cameras transmitting back to television monitors in the auditorium.

They are then carried into the air by the helicopters, from where they play a synchronized, polyphonic composition while reacting to the sounds of the rotor blades. Their playing is also influenced by the movements chosen by the pilots. From time to time their playing comes together in the same rhythms and bowings, even though it is plain they are isolated and kilometers apart. Video cameras and microphones transmit their images (including views through the glass cockpits of the world below) and sounds to four towers of video monitors and loudspeakers in the auditorium on the ground.

After returning to the ground and concluding the composition, the musicians and pilots disembark and return to the auditorium, still followed by the video cameras. Once in the auditorium, the moderator introduces the pilots to the audience, and asks players and pilots about their experiences. Questions are also taken from the audience.

Scene 4: Michaelion

The Michaelion is a galactic headquarters where a meeting of delegates from different stars has been called in order to elect a new President. He or she must be a "galaxy operator" who can translate universal messages no-one else can understand. The scene consists of three sub-scenes.

Präsidium
As the delegates arrive, the word goes round that the favourite candidate is named Lucicamel. In the auditorium, someone is listening to a short-wave radio, occasionally mimicking the sounds. After a while, he leaves.

"Kakabel" from Michaelion: choir members hold up the seven globes and comment (Birmingham Opera, 24 August 2012)

Luzikamel
Lucicamel, who is a Bactrian camel, arrives accompanied by a trombonist dressed in white, and is greeted by the delegates. In a series of events, he presents himself to the assembly.

Trombonut (Stephen Menotti) and Lucicamel in the Camel Dance from Michaelion (Birmingham Opera, 24 August 2012)
Luca (Michael Leibundgut), with his short-wave radio, emerges from Lucicamel (Birmingham Opera, 24 August 2012)

Operator
As Michael's Operator, Luca listens to broadcasts received on a short-wave radio in order to provide reports in response to problems successively posed by eleven delegates, who imitate him, poorly but humorously.

Just before the Space Sextet, a soprano (Ruth Kerr, accompanied by Chloé l'Abbé, flute) sings "I see … a clarinet above a harbour, a bassoon above a steam train, …" (Birmingham Opera, 24 August 2012)

Mittwochs-Abschied

Mittwochs-Abschied, Birmingham, 23 August 2012

The Wednesday Farewell is the electronic music from scene 2 which, like the electronic music for act 2 of Dienstag, is projected octophonically through speakers arranged at the corners of a cube surrounding the audience. Here, however, it is played "beyond mirrored visions", in the form of video projections of the eleven space-events of Orchester-Finalisten, in the foyer as the audience departs (Stockhausen 2002, III and V).

Press reception (staged premiere)

The premiere performances were sold out. The venue's capacity was 500 with the audience moving between the two massive halls of Argyle Works. Birmingham Opera Company fielded a 100 strong acting company of "Vick's wonderful army of talented volunteers" (Pritchard 2012), a trademark of the company, who performed alongside the singers and instrumentalists, and sometimes also amongst the audience, "holding the fulcrum between humour and mystery on which the whole production was so skilfully balanced" (Griffiths 2012, 19). Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jörn Florian Fuchs cited Kathinka Pasveer's musical direction as a "truly brilliant realization of the score" (Fuchs 2012). Agreeing with this assessment of Pasveer's accomplishment, David Fallows added that "one of the important details of any live performance of Stockhausen has always been the sheer gorgeousness of the sound projection, making its impact right from the first moments of the magically lucid Wednesday Greeting" (Fallows 2012, 1284–85). Anna Picard concluded in The Independent that it was an "unhurried, ecstatic promenade production" and that "Stockhausen's dream was realised wittily and lovingly" (Picard 2012).

Rupert Christiansen gave the production 4 out of 5 stars in The Telegraph, but he dismissed its third scene Helicopter String Quartet which he felt was "a banal gimmick, wasting an obscene amount of money and fuel to generate only a hideous amount of pointless noise". Christiansen cited Stockhausen's "bonkers sense of humour" as "a saving grace" of the production (Christiansen 2012). Nick Richardson, writing in the London Review of Books, disagreed about the Helicopter Quartet, describing it as "fantastic on Thursday night, particularly at take-off, the strings’ vigorous tremolos locking with the throb of the rotor blades and the warm, bass hum of engine" (Richardson 2012).

Gisela Schwarz wrote in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that Graham Vick had ably captured Stockhausen's diverse religious views without dismissing them as merely esoteric (Schwarz 2012b). Stephen Pritchard's review for The Observer concluded that the production was "undoubtedly" worth the reported £920,000 expense of the production:

This repertoire pushes the musicians to their absolute limits; the score may appear random but it's extraordinarily controlled and tightly organised, with passages of exquisite tranquillity. The message is resolutely warm, heartfelt and loving, moving in and out of language, space and time. It's a major achievement. (Pritchard 2012)

Mark Swed summed up his view of the production in the Los Angeles Times by writing, "the event was astonishing for the soul and simply beyond belief" (Swed 2012).

Auxiliary works

In addition to the opera itself, various parts of which may be performed separately, there are four independent pieces made in different ways from versions of the Mittwoch formula:

Gallery

Discography

No integral recording of Mittwoch aus Licht has yet been released, although all of the components have now appeared. The SWR broadcast the whole opera in October 2003 using selections from the first six of the following CD releases plus the 1998 Bayerischer Rundfunk recording of the dress rehearsal of Michaelion.

Filmography

References

External links

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