Licht: Stockhausen’s Legacy

Brilliant… Megalomaniac… Unstageable… these are just some of the words that have been used to describe the mammoth and radical opera cycle LICHT (Light), written by the legendary and controversial composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Stockhausen spent 26 years writing this larger-than-life opera and it was completed only in 2003, six years before his death. But his magnum opus was never staged as it was musically and theatrically too complex, logistically near impossible and just too expensive. No opera company was brave (or rash) enough to produce it. Until now. The film recreates Stockhausen’s musical universe through the making of LICHT, staged and performed by The Dutch National Opera, against the backdrop of his dramatic life story.