Sun 20.9.
16:00
Hauptbühne, Berlin
Mittwoch aus Licht - Deutsche Oper Berlin
Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Karlheinz Stockhausen
About
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) was a German composer who shaped the course of 20th-century music more radically than almost any of his contemporaries. He pioneered electronic music in Cologne from the early 1950s, invented new approaches to spatial sound, serial composition, and musical theatre, and over his lifetime produced more than 350 works. His crowning achievement is LICHT (Light), a cycle of seven operas - one for each day of the week - composed between 1977 and 2003, totalling 29 hours of music and standing as the longest opera cycle in history.
350+
Compositions written over his lifetime
29h
Total duration of the LICHT opera cycle
12
International arts academies he was a member of
2001
Polar Music Prize (year awarded)
What's new
- 2026-09
Mittwoch aus Licht premieres as a staged production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (19-27 September 2026), marking the first-ever scenic staging of this opera in the German-speaking world.
- 2026-09
Five performances of Mittwoch aus Licht are scheduled at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in September 2026, conducted by Maxime Pascal and directed by Susanne Kennedy.
- 2025-11
Montag aus Licht received its complete premiere at the Philharmonie de Paris on 29 November 2025, as part of the Festival d'Automne, staged by Silvia Costa.
- 2025-02
A detailed critical reassessment of the complete LICHT cycle was published by The Opera Scribe in February 2025, noting that the cycle 'has almost nothing in common with most traditional operas written in the last 250 years.'
- 2023
Sonntag aus Licht premiered at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2023, staged by Ted Huffman, as part of Le Balcon's ongoing complete production of the LICHT cycle.
Tour
Berlin
Tracks
Gesang der Jünglinge1955-56 electronic masterpiece, mixing a boy's voice with synthesized sounds; landmark of 20th-century music
Kontakte1958-60, for electronic sounds, piano and percussion; explores the boundary between electronic and instrumental timbre
Stimmung1968, for six vocalists; one of his most performed works, built entirely on overtones of a single chord
Gruppen1955-57, for three orchestras placed around the audience; a milestone of spatial composition
LICHT (Die sieben Tage der Woche)Seven-opera cycle composed 1977-2003; at 29 hours, the longest opera cycle in history
😴 Nothing scheduled with this artist in the near future.
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