« The Lost Groom » | [

trailer](https://www.ictus.be/listen/der-verschwundene-hochzeiter-klaus-lang)
a new opera by Klaus Lang, a commission of the Bayreuther Festspiele

This opera was inspired by an old legend from the Gölsental Valley,
in Lower Austria,
which tells the most unusual tale of a young groom,
who one day happened upon the wedding of a noble stranger
in an unknown land,
and was invited to celebrate with him
over the course of three days
only to realise that three hundred years had passed upon his return.
The music probes the empty space, enveloping the audience.
From the vacuity of the void to the plenitude of the void,
in the composer’s own words.
And also *music is not designed to seduce the hearts,
it wants to penetrate them,
launching offshoots and creating expanses*.
The young man’s journey thus becomes our own journey,
as we forge forward,
with all senses on alert,
in a strangely familiar world,
to the heart of silence at the heart of sound.