Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra: Le Grand Macabre

Helsinki Music Centre, Concert Hall
Mon 24.8.2026  19:00
Tue 25.8.2026  19:00

Duration: approx. 2h 25min, interval
Age recommendation: 14+
Language: English

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Nicholas Collon, conductor
Mateusz Gwidzalla, assisting conductor

Helsinki Chamber Choir
Nils Schweckendiek, choir direction

Frederic Wake-Walker, direction
Sasha Balmazi-Owen, visualization

Makeup design and execution: Tuija Luukkainen, Jonna Jokelainen, Katjaana Bryant, Ari Haapaniemi
Costume execution: Märta Lööv, Pia Lasonen
Child extras are students from Theatre School ILMI Ö, with Sofia Koski participating in children’s directing

Soloists:
Chief of the Gepopo / Venus: Sarah Aristidou, soprano
Nekrotzar: Leigh Melrose, baritone
Piet the Pot: Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, tenor
Mescalina: Heidi Melton, soprano
Astradamors: Karl Huml, bass
Prince Go-Go: Andrew Watts, countertenor
Minister, White Party: Kangyoon Shine Lee, tenor
Minister, Black Party: Luke Terence Scott, baritone
Amanda: Elisabeth Freyhoff, soprano
Amando: Jingjing Xu, mezzo-soprano
Schabernack: Jussi Merikanto, baritone
Schobiack: Tomi Punkeri, baritone
Ruffiack: Sakari Topi, baritone
Secret police and executioners, Prince Go-Go’s master of ceremonies and servants, Nekrotzar’s hellish entourage: Helsinki Chamber Choir

György Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre (1978) is based on the 1934 surrealist end-of-the-world comedy by the Belgian playwright Michel de Ghelderode. It is a grim farce that combines irony and humor with tragedy. The central idea is to make death a laughingstock and mock it.

The opera is set in the fictional Brueghelland in an unspecified century. As in the art of Pieter Bruegel, the chaotic world of the opera is both exuberantly colorful and dark. The whole is brutal and absurd, yet at the same time deeply human.

The score of Le Grand Macabre is a dazzling collage of styles—eclectic, mocking, and combining various genres. Its kaleidoscopic nature can be seen as a reaction against the constraints of serialism and the Darmstadt School, whose totalitarian ethos Ligeti compared to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union: “Tonality was strictly forbidden. Writing melodies—even atonal ones—was an absolute taboo. Periodic rhythm and discernible pulse were likewise rejected.”

Ligeti himself was open to all music. In Le Grand Macabre, which he referred to as an “anti-anti-opera,” he quotes Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Beethoven, Offenbach, and Scott Joplin. The borrowings are mostly alienated; Ligeti himself spoke of fake or distorted quotes. Influences were drawn from Brazilian, Balkan, Byzantine, Scottish, and Spanish music. The composer noted that the work’s music is “close to pop style” and non-atonal, yet it does not represent a return to tonality either.

The opera consists of two acts divided into two scenes each. In the first scene, two lovers search for a place to satisfy their desires. A figure symbolizing death, Nekrotzar, rises from a tomb. He claims to be able to predict and bring about the end of the world, and forces the drunkard Piet the Pot to become his servant. The couple chooses the tomb vacated by Nekrotzar as the location for their lust.

In the second scene, the wife of court astrologer Astradamors, Mescalina, bosses her husband around and forces him to do housework. Astradamors observes an approaching comet in the sky that is set to cause the end of the world at midnight. Meanwhile, Mescalina dreams of a sexually capable man. Nekrotzar satisfies her, gives her a kiss of death, and hurries off to the court of Brueghelland with Astradamors at his heels.

In the scene opening the second act, the ruler Prince Go-Go cares only about food and drink. His ministers compete for his favor, and the people are in revolt. Nekrotzar arrives, predicting the apocalypse, but according to court tradition, the drinking begins first. Nekrotzar winds up getting drunk alongside the others, and the end of the world appears not to happen.

In the final scene set in the morning, no one is sure whether the apocalypse took place or not. Mescalina attacks Nekrotzar, recognizing him as her ex-husband. Nekrotzar disappears in embarrassment, while the others continue drinking. The lovers emerge from the tomb, completely unaware of what transpired. Everyone is relieved to have survived.

Amidst all the carnivalesque tone and humor, Ligeti insisted that Le Grand Macabre must be taken as serious art rather than slapstick comedy. The score is written with meticulous precision down to every vocal and instrumental effect, and its accurate execution requires great virtuosity from the performers. The world premiere took place in Stockholm in 1978, but the first production Ligeti expressed satisfaction with was the revised version by Esa-Pekka Salonen and director Peter Sellars—reworked by Ligeti himself—for the 1997 Salzburg Festival. This is the version that has been performed ever since and will also be heard at the Helsinki Festival.

Text: Pekka Miettinen

We are providing Finnish and English subtitles for the performance. You can view the subtitles on your own smartphone using an app called Subtitle Mobile.

Before the performance:

At the concert:

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra »
Nicholas Collon »
Mateusz Gwidzalla »
Helsinki Chamber Choir »
Nils Schweckendiek »
Frederic Wake-Walker »
Sasha Balmazi-Owen »

Sarah Aristidou »
Leigh Melrose »
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke »
Heidi Melton »
Karl Huml »
Andrew Watts »
Kangyoon Shine Lee »
Luke Terence Scott »
Elisabeth Freyhoff »
Jingjing Xu »
Jussi Merikanto »
Tomi Punkeri »
Sakari Topi »