Welcome to the 'anti-anti-opera'

It mimics Monteverdi and mocks Mozart. It's puerile and prophetic. Welcome to Ligeti's 'anti-anti-opera', Le Grande MacabreIt takes all of about five seconds before you realise that Hungarian composer György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre is an opera of the unexpected. The piece starts with a prelude – a conventional enough idea, except that instead of being played by the orchestra, it's scored for 12 car horns, performed by the hands and feet of three percussionists. It's a surreal coup de...

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