As the first book in English solely dedicated to discussion of György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre (1974-77, revised 1996), this study offers new perspectives on the opera's ambiguous music-dramatic identity in the context of musical postmodernism. Peter Edwards draws on a range of modernist and postmodernist theories to explore the collision of past styles and genre models in the opera, its expressive states and its engagement with the grotesque. This is ably supported by musical analysis and extensive study of Ligeti's sketch materials held at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel. A key reference work in the fields of musical modernism and postmodernism, opera studies and the music of Ligeti.

Peter Edwards is a post-doctoral research fellow in musicology at the University of Oslo. He leads a research project entitled 'Style and Modernity', funded by the Research Council of Norway. In 2012 Peter successfully defended his PhD thesis on György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre; a critical examination of Ligeti's creative process, the sketches for the opera, and the significance of the opera in the wider context of modern and postmodern aesthetics. He has also worked as a guitarist and composer and has received numerous commissions from leading ensembles and performers. Peter is a member of the editorial board of the Norwegian Journal of Musicology.

Contents: List of Plates List of Tables List of Musical Examples Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction 1 An Anti-Anti-Opera 2 A Conception of Musico-Dramatic Form 3 Arias, 'Leit-Characteristics' and Expressive States 4 Allusion and Transformation 5 Stylistic Dissonance and the Collage 6 Resisting Closure: The Passacaglia Finale 7 From Electronic Music to Music Theatre 8 A Musical Grotesque Select Bibliography Index