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It's the end of the world as we know it at Lincoln Center. The New York Philharmonic is presenting the New York premiere of the absurdist opera “Le Grand Macabre.”

“Basically there's this kind of imaginary land called Brueghelland and this strange man names Nekrotzar,” explains soprano Barbara Hannigan. “He feels he is a guru kind of character, and he comes in and says ‘the world is gonna end tonight at midnight and I know it,’ and he manages to convince a lot of people of this and people go into a panic and you see what happens to humanity when they panic about something like this.”

Barbara Hannigan plays Gepopo, the chief of the secret police in Gy—rgy Ligeti's opera. Tenor Mark Schowalter plays Piet the Pot.

“It's a kind of counter character to death, to the grim reaper and I'm like the everyman drunk,” Schowalter says. “I'm drinking all the time. I'm always sauced. I don’t know why they picked me for the part, but I'll do it!”

The opera is a real carnival ride and a daring choice for the NY Philharmonic and music director, Alan Gilbert, in that it’s surrounded by two opera houses.

Tenor Mark Sholwater feels that opera is the future of the philharmonic.

“This kind of programming, where you're presenting credible, real exciting music that's not done so much because of its challenging aspect, but will bring in whole new audiences, from a whole different area of New York and beyond,” Sholwater says.

Even though they are calling this a fully-staged opera, it's still very minimalist and not what you might see next door.

“The orchestra is on stage; that's the main thing,” says Sholwater. “When you come to the opera house, you don't expect to see any players – any instrument players – on stage. They're in the pit. The challenge here is that the orchestra stays on the stage. And we have to do all of our stuff around them, so be careful you don’t hit the tubas and the bass and be careful over there and the chorus, and it all has to be done on one stage.”

“Le Grand Macabre” is not as well known in the U.S. as it is in Europe, but at least one of the performers is an expert.

“This will be the 38th time I've done it and I hope to do it 38 more times,” says Hannigan. “I love singing it. I mean it is brutally difficult, but I love it.”

Hannigan says the amount of sex and bad language may be why this opera has not been done more in the U.S., but she says now that the NY Philharmonic is doing it, it will probably get performed in the states more often – opening up a whole new world for this doomsday opera.

Le Grand Macabre
nyphil.org
Thu, May 27, 2010 7:30PM
Fri, May 28, 2010 8:00PM
Sat, May 29, 2010 8:00PM