Tonight, partly mid-air, The Birmingham Opera Company stages its premiere of Stockhausen’s complex Mittwoch Aus Licht in full version. The grueling six hour opera will feature a string quartet performing in four helicopters as part of the Helicopter String Quartet, dreamt up (literally) by relentless opera visionary Graham Vick for his unorthodox, 25-year-old opera company.
The always inspiring Vick elaborated:
“Stockhausen’s imagination doesn’t belong in opera houses. The whole idea of a soundscape is freed up if you create a space where audiences and performers intermingle. At its purest, directing operas is about creating a context and opening out receptivity. And that is what is at the middle of this whole opera: how you receive sound.”
The opera will be streamed live here, starting at 7pm UK time.
