Performances
Work on Licht began in 1977, and was finished in 2003, though the final scene was performed for the first time in 2004. Six of the operas have been staged, at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Leipzig Opera, and the Cologne Opera. The staged premiere of Wednesday has been announced by the Birmingham Opera Company for Wednesday, 22 August 2012 (the composer's eighty-fourth birthday), as part of the London 2012 Festival (Anon. 2012), though the scenes have already had separate premières (as was also true for the other six operas) between 1996 and 1998. Plans had previously been made to stage Wednesday in Bonn in 2000 and in Bern in 2003, but both were canceled due to financial and technical problems. The entire cycle was broadcast in a series on SWR2 between 2001 and 2007, introduced by the composer in conversation with Reinhard Ermen.
Performing such a piece is a challenge not only due to its length, but also due to the logistics involved. Each part, and in many cases, each scene, is designed for a different composition of musicians, ranging from scenes written for a cappella choir to orchestra with synthesizer to string quartet playing from helicopters above the concert hall.
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Famous quotes containing the word performances:
“This play holds the season’s record [for early closing], thus far, with a run of four evening performances and one matinee. By an odd coincidence it ran just five performances too many.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“At one of the later performances you asked why they called it a “miracle,”
Since nothing ever happened. That, of course, was the miracle
But you wanted to know why so much action took on so much life
And still managed to remain itself, aloof, smiling and courteous.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)