Wagner’s “Ring” cycle—so 19th century! With the 21st century looming, the modernist mandarin Karlheinz Stockhausen embarked on his operatic “spiral” Licht (Light), consisting of seven chapters named for the days of the week and adding up to 29 hours of music. You can start anywhere. A complete performance remains a Holy Grail; even fragmentary performances are rare in the extreme. The subject matter is said to root in Noh theater, nuclear physics, esoterica from Vedic as well as Judeo-Christian tradition—and the anonymous 2,097-page Urantia Book (1955), which examines not only our local universe but also “superuniverses” as well as the teachings of Jesus. The archangel Michael, the universal mother Eve, and the fallen Lucifer are the principals in the exceedingly opaque goings-on. Per Stockhausen’s biographers, they are not characters in any conventional sense but “the expression of a world beyond, to which terrestrial eyes are blind.” The current performances in Paris parcel out Sonntag (Sunday) over two programs. The first one covers Scenes 1 and 2 (performed November 16, with a repeat on November 17). Scenes 3, 4, and 5 follow (November 20, one night only). Related events include the family concert “Parfums de Licht” (October 21); it links to Scene 4, which calls for the dispersal of fragrances. —Matthew Gurewitsch