Matthew Barney Passes on Stockhausen's Seven-Opera Cycle Licht
American artist Matthew Barney has turned down the chance to take on Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera cycle Licht, saying the time it would take is more than he can give.
Speaking to New York Magazine's Zachary Woolfe, Barney put it plainly: "I don't think I can quit my job for two years." The reporting was published by ArtNews on 13 November 2026.
Licht, which means "light" in German, is a very large piece of work. The German composer wrote it between 1977 and 2003. It is made up of seven operas, one for each day of the week. An opera is a staged musical drama, usually sung, and these seven run long.
The whole cycle has been staged in full only twice. The second time was at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the opera house in the German capital. Parts of the work also appeared in New York at the Park Avenue Armory, a performance space in Manhattan, in 2024.
Barney knows large projects well. His best-known work is The Cremaster Cycle, a set of five films that loosely follow the development of sexual organs in the embryo. His 2014 film River of Fundament runs nearly six hours. His 2023 video installation Secondary looks at football and American violence.
According to ArtNews, Barney has also signalled that he may be finished with projects as big as The Cremaster Cycle. He did not say what he plans to do next in the article.
For anyone who has followed his work, the news is simple. The man behind some of the most demanding films in contemporary art has decided that a two-year commitment to someone else's seven-day opera is not his next step. Stockhausen's Licht will need another director, and another team of singers, musicians and stagehands, to bring it to the stage.
