“An exhilarating success, a brilliant presentation of Ligeti's commanding score and a disarming production.” This was the verdict of the New York Times after three sold-out performances of György Ligeti's opera “Le Grand Macabre”, with which Alan Gilbert, in collaboration with director Doug Fitch, brought this milestone of modern music theater to New York for the first time in May 2010. For the Hamburg International Music Festival - which focuses on Ligeti's music - the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra is now bringing the highly acclaimed production to Hamburg in a version adapted for the Elbphilharmonie. “Le Grand Macabre” is a grotesque parable on the downfall of humanity, ‘an opera about the existential crisis in the modern world, about the search for the meaning of life - with all its nonsense and craziness’, states Alan Gilbert. It is no coincidence that this pitch-black musical theater spectacle is the most frequently performed contemporary opera in the world.

Cast

Wilbur Pauley

Astradamors

Anthony Roth Costanzo

Duke Go-Go

John Relyea

Black Minister

Elizabeth Watts

Amanda

Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Amando

Mark Schowalter

Piet vom Fass

Mark Schowalter

Nekrotzar

Heidi Melton

Mescalina

Claire de Sévigné

Venus

Andrew Dickinson

White Minister

Audrey Luna

Head of the Gestapo

Rob Besserer

Atmosphericist

Alan Gilbert

Conductor