About the work
Freitag aus Licht (Friday from Light) – whose main body is also titled "Friday Temptation" – is the fifth-composed of the seven operas in Karlheinz Stockhausen's cycle Licht – The Seven Days of the Week, written in 1991–1994. It was commissioned by Udo Zimmermann for the Oper Leipzig, which gave the staged premiere on 12 September 1996 – the last Licht opera to be staged with the composer's involvement. Friday is the day of temptation; it stands under the sign of Eve and her seduction.
Plot
After a "Friday Greeting", the "Friday Temptation" unfolds: Eve, in a happy union with Michael, is seduced by Lucifer's son Kaino and enters into a relationship with him. From this "false" union spring grotesque hybrid creatures, and the world falls into disorder – a fall from grace that leads to war and destruction before repentance and purification follow. The action is accompanied by twelve "sound scenes" and pairs of child figures, as well as by a continuous electronic music that, with concrete everyday sounds, forms a meaning-layer of its own.
Cultural significance
Freitag aus Licht treats the ancient motif of seduction and the fall from grace in Stockhausen's own mythological language. The opera is famous for its extended electronic music and its "sound scenes", in which real noises are assembled into a surreal sound-world. As the second Licht premiere at the Oper Leipzig (after Tuesday), it is closely linked with the city. Like the whole cycle, Friday too rests entirely on the three-voice superformula and unites song, instrumental and dance theatre with electronic sound direction into a world-theatre of radical consistency.