Grand Macabre
''Le Grand Macabre'' (1974–1977, revised version 1996) is the only opera by Hungarian composer György Ligeti. The opera has two acts, and its libretto—based on the 1934 play ''La balade du grand macabre'' by Michel de Ghelderode—was written by Ligeti in collaboration with , director of the Stockholm puppet theatre. The original libretto was written in German as ''Der grosse Makaber'' but for the first production was translated into Swedish by Meschke under its current title. The opera has also been performed in English, French, Italian, Hungarian and Danish. Only a few notes need be changed to perform the opera in any of these languages. ''Le Grand Macabre'' was premiered in Stockholm on 12 April 1978 and has received more than 30 productions. In preparation for a 1997 production at the Salzburg Festival, Ligeti made substantial revisions to the opera in 1996, tightening the structure by means of cuts in scenes 2 and 4, setting some of the originally spoken passages to m ...
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György Ligeti (1984)
György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time". Born in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in the Hungarian People's Republic before emigrating to Austria in 1956. He became an Austrian citizen in 1968. In 1973 he became professor of composition at the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater, where he worked until retiring in 1989. He died in Vienna in 2006. Restricted in his musical style by the authorities of Communist Hungary, only when he reached the West in 1956 could Ligeti fully realise his passion for avant-garde music and develop new compositional techniques. After experimenting with electronic music in Cologne, Germany, his breakthrough came with orchestral works such as ''Atmosphères'' ...
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