A Beginning!
The Scenic Première of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht
Roman Brotbeck
On 22 August 2012 in Birmingham, at the close of the English Cultural Olympiad, Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht was given its first staged performance. Roman Brotbeck here offers a text that is half an essay, half a review, describing how director Graham Vick and the Birmingham Opera Company made interventions in Stockhausen’s own scenic instructions, deconstructing the “aura” of the work and thereby raising the stage action to the same level as the music. Brotbeck further reflects on the specifics of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch, both within the Licht cycle and in the context of the composer’s whole oeuvre.
