Wednesday is the day of cooperation and reconciliation among
Michael,
Eve, and
Lucifer, and its
exoteric colour is bright yellow. The following list of 24 "scenic features" of the whole opera is found in the preface to the score of its final scene: •
Light spirits: Eve, Michael, and Lucifer • Divine principles: intuition and harmony • Theme: love, friendship, and cosmic solidarity • Ritual: beauty and art • Beings: humans and the
guardian angel Raphael • Element:
air • Sound: singing • Voices: soprano, tenor, and bass • Instruments: basset horn with flute, trumpet, trombone • Organ: brain, speech organ • Sense: sight (especially the right eye), pure reason • Centre: between the eyes, face,
clairvoyance • Awareness: understanding, vision, spiritual comprehension • Colour: bright yellow, iridescence of all colours. • Scents:
mastic and
frankincense • Precious stones: yellow
zircon,
topaz • Metal:
mercury • Flower: golden yellow
rudbeckia • Shrub:
forsythia • Tree:
maple,
Japanese maples • Animals: dove, camel • Number: 8 • Planet: Mercury • Symbol:
Mittwoch is in four scenes, which are preceded by a greeting and followed by a farewell.
Mittwochs-Gruß The
Wednesday Greeting consists of the electronic music from the fourth scene,
Michaelion, and is played in the foyer amidst flues, winds, blowers, kites, balloons, and flying doves.
Scene 1: Welt-Parlament ) convenes the World Parliament (Birmingham Opera production, 24 August 2012) The World Parliament convenes in a session above the clouds, and the subject for debate is love. As the parliamentarians arrive via transparent elevators at the top floor of the skyscraper or floating glass dome, helicopters and doves occasionally pass by in the blue sky beyond. The debate is carried on in unknown languages, with occasional lapses into intelligibility in the local language. Delegates rise to present their interpretations of love, with the President commenting on each view. When a janitor interrupts with the news that an illegally parked car is about to be towed away, the President realises it is his, and rushes out. A coloratura soprano is elected temporary President, and the debate is continued. After a final large vowel spiral, the parliamentarians synchronously declare the central theme of the opera: "World parliament
Wednesday from
Light, day of reconciliation, love". The session is adjourned, all rise and exit while singing further attributes of Wednesday ("day of spaces", "day of women's rights", "day of Mercury", "day of reconciliation", "day of flying", "day of new languages", etc.) on a G. Unsure where he should exit, the fattest bass stops, turns to the audience in embarrassment, and before leaving stutters, "Now the next scene would follow".
Scene 2: Orchester-Finalisten Eleven instrumentalists compete for posts in an orchestra, while floating high in the air. Telescopic observation reveals a variety of airborne scenes: a cathedral roof, aeroplanes flying over the sea, ships in a harbour, etc. In the last solo, the double-bass player becomes convulsed in an obsessive-compulsive fit of scraping and groaning, until the appearance of the mysterious figure of a mummy who, with a stroke on a Chinese gong, releases the bassist from his affliction. After all auditions have been completed, a horn player unexpectedly enters the hall, playing a signal, after which all of the players fly upward in a tutti finale. The solos are accompanied by electronic and concrete music in
octophonic spatial projection, and each is associated with a particular image: • Oboe above a cathedral • Violoncello over an airport by the sea • Clarinet above a harbour with passing aircraft • Bassoon over a train pulled by a steam locomotive • Violin above a bird reserve • Tuba amongst flocks of birds and swarms of bees • Flute above a kindergarten with small goats • Trombone above a swimming pool with elephants • Viola flying with wild geese over a railway station • Trumpet over a
Marrakesh market-place, with zebras, lions, wild geese, and horses • Contrabass above a sailing ship, with tree frogs and a
beat up car • Horn • Orchestral Tutti
Scene 3: Helikopter-Streichquartett The four musicians of a string quartet are first introduced to the audience by a moderator, who describes the technical details of the performance. The players then walk or are driven to four waiting helicopters, followed by video cameras transmitting back to television monitors in the auditorium. They are then carried into the air by the helicopters, from where they play a synchronized,
polyphonic composition while reacting to the sounds of the
rotor blades. Their playing is also influenced by the movements chosen by the pilots. From time to time their playing comes together in the same rhythms and bowings, even though it is plain they are isolated and kilometers apart. Video cameras and microphones transmit their images (including views through the glass cockpits of the world below) and sounds to four towers of video monitors and loudspeakers in the auditorium on the ground. After returning to the ground and concluding the composition, the musicians and pilots disembark and return to the auditorium, still followed by the video cameras. Once in the auditorium, the moderator introduces the pilots to the audience, and asks players and pilots about their experiences. Questions are also taken from the audience.
Scene 4: Michaelion The Michaelion is a galactic headquarters where a meeting of delegates from different stars has been called in order to elect a new President. He or she must be a "galaxy operator" who can translate universal messages no one else can understand. The scene consists of three sub-scenes.
Präsidium As the delegates arrive, the word goes round that the favourite candidate is named Lucicamel. In the auditorium, someone is
listening to a short-wave radio, occasionally mimicking the sounds. After a while, he leaves.
Luzikamel Lucicamel, who is a
Bactrian camel, arrives accompanied by a trombonist dressed in white, and is greeted by the delegates. In a series of events, he presents himself to the assembly. • "
Kakabel". Lucicamel sings of
Camael, the angel of the seven planets, and defecates seven differently coloured planet globes, "which emphasize MICHAEL'S light for the seven days of the week". Not all of the delegates are favourably impressed. • "Shoe-Shine Serenade". Two tenors polish Lucicamel's left fore hoof until it shines like gold, while two other tenors do the same with his left hind hoof. • "Pocket Trick". Lucicamel turns around and abruptly sticks one hoof into his pocket. Two tenor delegates entice him away with a large bottle of champagne and he nearly leaves, but is stopped and brought back by two altos. • "Camel Dance". A little tipsy, Lucicamel and his trombone assistant dance, while he sings the names of stars and sneers at "Sirius philistines who say that Lucicameltrombonut are not musical". The delegates chuckle and make ironic and humorous comments. • "Bullfight". Trombonut plays the part of a matador and Lucicamel plays the bull, while the delegates clap and cheer them on. Lucicamel wins, and sits down on the fallen trombonist while a podium is brought in and the women unzip the camel costume. From it emerges Luca, wearing a
Zen monk's cape. He is brought a yellow robe, mask, and high, pointed hat. He is acclaimed as President and Operator, and takes his place on the podium.
Operator As Michael's Operator, Luca listens to broadcasts received on a short-wave radio in order to provide reports in response to problems successively posed by eleven delegates, who imitate him, poorly but humorously. • Thinki. An alto delegate's question (in German) is accompanied by a flautist in an ornate cadenza, and the Operator replies (in English), that "Leo lion galaxies ask Michael if God wants Michael, Eve, Lucifer to work together for cosmic solidarity". • Bassetsu Trio (Carousel). Trombonut and the trumpeter are now joined by a basset-horn player. Together they play and dance in a stylized, rotating choreography as the choir receives instruction from the Operator in various styles of singing and languages (
Noh,
Kabuki, American, Russian, Swedish, Italian,
Kölsch, French, Zulu, Bavarian, Greek, Dutch, North German, and Chinese). A soprano from the choir sings about her home, the sun of planet Earth—"terra magica"—describing moments from
Orchester-Finalisten ("I see oboes above cathedrals, I see a cello gently floating above an airport by the sea ..."). The tenors enter slowly, each holding a small book and softly singing the text "Litanei" from Stockhausen's 1968 composition cycle
Aus den sieben Tagen. • "Menschen, hört" ("Mankind, Hear")—Space-Sextet. The delegates are sent out to the distant corners of the universe. Six of them are each presented with one of the planet-globes to take along, and come out into the auditorium to sing a concluding sextet as they rotate clockwise around the audience. As they leave the hall, the Operator is alone on the stage and gradually fades from sight, still transforming short-wave sounds, until only the nocturnal firmament is left shining above.
Mittwochs-Abschied The
Wednesday Farewell is the electronic music from scene 2 which, like the
electronic music for act 2 of
Dienstag, is projected octophonically through speakers arranged at the corners of a cube surrounding the audience. Here, however, it is played "beyond mirrored visions", in the form of video projections of the eleven space-events of
Orchester-Finalisten, in the foyer as the audience departs. ==Press reception (staged premiere)==