The music of Karlheinz Stockhausen is being revisited on the South Bank, not because of any anniversary, but, rather admirably, out of pure artistic enterprise. Next weekend, some of his most influential early pieces will be given in concerts at Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room, while last week at the Royal Festival Hall there were two performances of one of his better-known later works, Donnerstag (Thursday), from the Licht cycle of seven operas, one for each day of the week.
Donnerstag had its premiere at La Scala, Milan, in 1981, under Peter Eotvos’s direction, and its British premiere in Michael Bogdanov’s production for the Royal Opera in 1985. It hasn’t had another staging here till now, though excerpts have appeared. This version, conducted
