On the occasion of the new directorship, Deutsche Oper Berlin is venturing to show a project that crashes through boundaries and opens up new spaces: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht will be shown as a scenic opera production in the German-speaking world for the first time. Stockhausen, visionary of sound, crafted nothing less than a cosmic theatrum mundi about man and woman, good and evil, birth and death with his monumental cycle LICHT. Die sieben Tage der Woche. While other portions of the cycle centre around the struggle between competing forces, the polarity of which reshapes our lives every day, Mittwoch celebrates the utopia of love and the spiritual connection in the spirit of music, as well as the belief that community and solidarity are possible. Stockhausen was uncompromising in his search for a new type of music; he is considered one of the most innovative and yet most controversial composers of the 20th century. A pioneer of electronic music, he also inspired pop music across all genres, including Kraftwerk and Björk. The spectacular centrepiece of Mittwoch aus Licht is the helicopter string quartet, in which Stockhausen expands the musical space beyond the theatre itself: The members of a string quartet sit in four helicopters circling high above the audience. Sounds of strings meld with the helicopter blades, floating down to the audience from above. For our production, the quartet will be performed live as a one-of-a-kind event for the whole city, with film recordings of the quartet becoming part of the production. Award-winning duo Susanne Kennedy and Markus Selg, who caused a sensation with Einstein on the Beach at Theater Basel and Parsifal at Opera Antwerpen, will transform their first opera production in Berlin into an immersive ritual. Maxime Pascal, Principal Guest Conductor under the new directorship, is an expert and passionate connoisseur of Stockhausen and has performed every piece of the LICHT cycle except for Mittwoch.
More information:
deutscheoperberlin.de/en_EN/production/wednesday-from-light.1386828
Team:
Conductor
Maxime Pascal
Director
Susanne Kennedy
Stage design
Markus Selg
Concept
Markus Selg
Susanne Kennedy
Costume design
Andra Dumitrascu
Light design
Marcel Weber/MFO
Sound projection
Florent Derex
Sound projection Assistant
Nicolas Widmer
Computer Music Designer
Augustin Muller
Video
Warja Rybakova (DOCKdigital)
Markus Selg
Dramaturgy
Beate Breidenbach
Conductor «World Parliament»
Jeremy Bines
Info
Opera comprising a Greeting, four scenes, and a Farewell for 9 soloists (flute, basset horn, trumpet, trombone, string quartet, bass with shortwave receiver), a choir with a singing conductor, an orchestra (13 instrumentalist-actors), a synthesizer player, 2 dancer-mimes, electronic music (tape), and sound projection.
Music and text by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Structure
Wednesday Greeting
First Scene: World Parliament
Second Scene: Orchestra Finalists
Third Scene: Helicopter String Quartet
Fourth Scene: Michaelion
Wednesday Farewell
Commissions
World Parliament: SWR Stuttgart
Orchestra Finalists: Jan van Vlijmen, Holland Festival
Helicopter String Quartet: Hans Landesmann, Salzburg Festival
Michaelion: Udo Zimmermann, Bayerischer Rundfunk
Composition: 1995–1997
Premiere broadcast: October 23 and 30, 2003, on SWR2 radio.
Full-length staged premiere: August 22, 2012, at Argyle Works as part of the London 2012 Festival, performed by the Birmingham Opera Company under the musical direction of Kathinka Pasveer.
Publisher: Stockhausen Verlag.
Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on September 19, 2026
Co-production
With generous support from the Lotto Stiftung Berlin and the Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin. With special support for "Ensemble Le Balcon" from France Majoie Lelous and Brigitte Lescure. A co-production with the Philharmonie de Paris. In cooperation with Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin. Presented by TAZ and WALL.