In August 2009, ENO Baylis went on a trio of creative adventures inspired by György Ligeti’s sensational opera Le Grand Macabre.

We spent four action-packed days exploring the opera with a group of young people on our annual summer course. Using percussion as our starting point, we played a range of the instruments that feature in the opera, got up close with the ENO Orchestra at sectional rehearsals, went backstage at the London Coliseum and composed our own ‘anti anti opera’. 

We also launched our groundbreaking ‘Play Ligeti’ iPhone application. Developed in association with Electric Ears, this App enables you to explore the extraordinary car horn prelude that opens the opera. It can be used as a mobile instrument, a game for one or more players and a composition tool. Or you can get together with friends and create your own car horn orchestra!

Finally, we produced Beeping in Breughelland, an online film introducing Le Grand Macabre through the world of percussion. Who’s Claudia and will she live? How many percussion instruments does Ligeti write for in Le Grand Macabre? What was ENO’s Principal Percussionist doing in a kitchen supplies shop? Click here to see the film and find out! 

On 25 September 2009, we celebrated all three projects with a percussive extravaganza at the London Coliseum. There was a live performance by the participants on ENO’s summer course, the world premiere of a piece for iPhone car horns and a screening of Beeping in Breughelland.