Omer Meir Wellber conducts Le Grand Macabre in Palermo (November 2024)
Omer Meir Wellber conducts the premiere of “Le Grand Macabre” at the season opening of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo on November 24, 2024. The opera by György Ligeti is directed by Barbora Horáková.
“Ever since my arrival in Palermo as music director of the Teatro Massimo,” says Maestro Omer Meir Wellber, ”I have had the goal of staging György Ligeti’s “Le Grand Macabre” a work that deals with the theme of the relationship between dictatorship and freedom, between ruler and ruled, and it does so from so many aspects, ranging from the macro level to the minimal level of the affairs of individuals, from the politics of states to the life of couples. It is a thought-provoking work, but it is also very, very funny. Musically, too, it seems to me to be very suitable for the Teatro Massimo: I find that the more history-rich, classical, imposing a theater is, the more successful modern titles seem to be, they seem better suited to be performed here. Already upon entering this theater one grasps all the tradition behind it, and that is also the case with this music, which is very modern and has a peculiar language, but comes from all the great Western musical tradition. All the work done together with the orchestra over these five years has been to prepare this opera, which is the most complex challenge we have faced. After Parsifal, after Tristan und Isolde, after so many projects in which they also approached the music as improvisation, they are now faced with a score that is difficult not only to play but also to manage: I am thinking especially of the percussion, which not only has complicated writing but has so many instruments among which to juggle. We have arrived together at the peak of a mountain, and it is quite a challenge.”
November 24 Palermo, Teatro Massimo Premiere
György Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre
Barbora Haráková, director
Further performances on 26, 28, 29.11 & 01.12
Following a busy August of concerto and recital appearances at the Tanglewood, Aspen and Edinburgh festivals and the Hollywood Bowl, Midori embarked on her 2024/2025 season, highlights of which include:
• A week at the Krzyzowa Chamber Music Festival in Poland, helping to celebrate its 10th anniversary;
• Recording Spring Cadenzas, a work composed by Derek Bermel for her Orchestra Residencies Program, with the Boston-based ensemble A Far Cry and its Project STEP students;
• Recital tours to Turkey, India and Sri Lanka, among others;
• Concerto appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Andris Nelsons in Vienna and on tour to Korea and Japan and with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Jonathan Nott on tour in Spain;
• “Hope Concerts” in Ishikawa, Japan, to support victims of the January 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake with pianist Mao Fujita;
• International Community Engagement Project (ICEP) in Nepal with three young string players;
• Recitals in the U.S. with pianist Özgür Aydin in Boston, New York San Francisco and Los Angeles, among others in the spring of 2025. The recital program is a musical reflection on suffering and loss inspired by Federico García Lorca’s poem Casida of the Lament represented in works by Poulenc, Brahms and Ravel and the premiere of Spirituals by Che Buford;
• Recording works by Robert Schumann
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