WNO Moses Und Aron

[Don Basilio]

I saw this last night. .. Certainly, for most of the characters on the cast list, I had absolutely no idea who they were on the stage. .

There are only two solo characters, dramatically speaking, Moses and A(a)ron. The other soloists are voices in the crowd, which as a whole is the third character.

It would be pointless dressing everyone up in dressing gowns to look Biblical like a school nativity play. I'm not sure about representing the worship of the Golden Calf as a night at the movies, but I could see the connection.

Were you disappointed that the four Naked Virgins (as promised in the cast list) kept most of their kit on?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There are only two solo characters, dramatically speaking, Moses and A(a)ron. The other soloists are voices in the crowd, which as a whole is the third character.

Yes - but certain "characters" return: the "Girl" who enthusiastically speaks of Moses' arrival at the start of Scene Three is equally enthusiastic about the wonders of the Golden Calf in Act Two (she sings the same Music).

Were you disappointed that the four Naked Virgins (as promised in the cast list) kept most of their kit on?

"'Naked' only inasfar as the Laws of the Land and the propriety of the Stage permit." (Stage Direction.)

[Belgrove]

I'm glad to have seen it, given it's rarity, but like Don, I found the theology more interesting than the production or, unfortunately, the music. The Golden Calf sequence is not sufficiently musically dramatic to carry the weight and content of what is being depicted (or not as in the case of this production, which fits with the precepts of the work). Strauss, Szymanowski, Berg simply have a greater musico/dramatic sensibility for depicting the lush, exotic and depraved. Full credit to WNO for having the courage to revive it, it does seem to be a once in a lifetime piece.

[Don Basilio]

"'Naked' only inasfar as the Laws of the Land and the propriety of the Stage permit." (Stage Direction.)

David Poutney says in the programme that the first time he saw the work as a teenager was the first time he saw a stripper.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Full credit to WNO for having the courage to revive it, it does seem to be a once in a lifetime piece.

??? In Wales, perhaps? Internationally, productions of Moses appear about every seven years or so. And I would suggest that, if the performance you heard of the Golden Calf sequence was "not sufficiently musically dramatic to carry the weight and content of what is being depicted" then the performance was a dud.

I'd be interested (seriously; the supercilious tone that often accompanies such statements isn't intended here) to read what you and DonB mean by the work's "Theology", and why you think this more interesting than the Music, which is one of the miracles of the human imagination for me: the variety, the invention, the craftsmanship, the colour - the work is an endless source of wonder, delight, challenge and inspiration.

I'm also fascinated by the aesthetics of the work - the extent to which the purity of an idea is compromised by its communication in any terms other than itself. Aron, the popularizer - "translating" the message into simple terms that the mass public can respond to enthusiastically, but also distorting that message as he does so. Moses, the inarticulate Puritan, for whom such "translation" is a blasphemous compromise. And how this conflict of communication is embedded in Schönberg's score: the composer discovering the riches of the Serial Method as he wrote, and "tempted" to expose these to the audience in Aronesque, popularist terms. The "lush, exotic and depraved" aren't really the focus, here - just a by-product of the Musical development, which (again for me) is so much more interesting than lush, exotic depravation (I get enough of that at home).

From the very opening - the most haunting, sensuously eerie opening to an Opera since Tristan, (no wonder Moses feels inadequate to the task set him!) - through the Pastoral calling of Aron (who has immediately simultaneously grasped and missed the point), the gossip of the People, their defiance, fears, surrender to opulence, guilt right to the final despair of Moses just as the People believe that they have refound him - the Ariadne's thread of the Music guides and illuminates (which is more than mere "illustration" - if anything, the stage action is a personification of the Musical process) and does it superbly.

[amateur51]

Ok ok ok ferney - such has been your advocacy for this hitherto unknown (to me) masterwork that I now feel compelled to explore it

So ... I need your recommendation of a recorded version that is a) affordable; and b) comes with a libretto ; and c) does the work justice, so I can be ready for the next UK production in 2021, allegedly.

Ready and awaiting your advice ferney et al

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

a recorded version that is a) affordable; and b) comes with a libretto ; and c) does the work justice, so I can be ready for the next UK production in 2021, allegedly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Moses-Aron-Michael-Gielen/dp/B001RIGDHI/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1406373494&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=schonberg%2C+moses+und+aron

Two-out-of-three - no libretto, alas, just a synopsis (as is BRILLIANT's wont). But didn't you find one online?

There are excerpts on youTube, some with video (and at least one with onscreen score) which almost amount to a full performance of sorts.

[amateur51]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-M...moses+und+aron

Two-out-of-three - no libretto, alas, just a synopsis (as is BRILLIANT's wont). But didn't you find one online?

There are excerpts on youTube, some with video (and at least one with onscreen score) which almost amount to a full performance of sorts.

Triffic work ferney - many thanks

[Bryn]

The Boulez (with the RCO, no less) did/does come with a libretto and can be found, "Used: Very Good" for around £13 via the amazon.co.uk marketplace at the time of posting. I do prefer the Gielen on Brilliant Classics however.

Has anyone attempted to write music for Schoenberg's libretto for the 3rd Act? Did Schoenberg leave any indications of what he planned for it?

[amateur51]

The Boulez (with the RCO, no less) did/does come with a libretto and can be found, "Used: Very Good" for around £13 via the amazon.co.uk marketplace at the time of posting. I do prefer the Gielen on Brilliant Classics however.

Has anyone attempted to write music for Schoenberg's libretto for the 3rd Act? Did Schoenberg leave any indications of what he planned for it?

Cheers Bryn

[Steerpike]

I know this opera quite well, starting from the Rosbaud recording (following, as best I could, with a borrowed score) then the Hall/Solti show and so on, and I last saw it in Vienna with Gatti conducting, in 2006.

Musically, last night was the best I’ve ever heard. Above all from the chorus but also from the soloists and orchestra. Tomlinson was now and then on the singing side of sprechstimme, no bad thing because he chose his moments well. The only conductor I’ve heard with a comparable understanding of the score to Koenigs was John Pritchard with the BBCSO in 1988 (I think). With Koenigs I didn’t hear the music as analytic or romantic, it was both and it was beautiful, and it went, as they say.

I thought the production was decent until the Golden Calf scene - what a cop out! Although the chorus were directed brilliantly so as to make the cinema conceit just about bearable, you really do need a spectacle if only to offset the mind-numbing repetition of the libretto in Act 2.

Overall a tremendous achievement I thought. The hours the chorus must have put in!

Berlin next in 2015.

[Roehre]

....
Has anyone attempted to write music for Schoenberg's libretto for the 3rd Act? Did Schoenberg leave any indications of what he planned for it?

Not as far as I am aware. IIRC no sketches whatsoever are known (likely never existed).
With the libretto complete, including stage directions, the 3rd act is performable on stage as drama.

[Bryn]

Not as far as I am aware. IIRC no sketches whatsoever are known (likely never existed).
With the libretto complete, including stage directions, the 3rd act is performable on stage as drama.

I have heard the libretto for Act 3 read after the first 2 Acts, but a staging as drama should work better, I would have thought. I'd also welcome someone writing the music, not as pastiche Schoenberg, but their own setting of the libretto, having due regard to what has gone before.

[Steerpike]

Apparently Kocsis has done a completion. I've never heard it. If you Google Moses und Aron Kocsis it comes up.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Has anyone attempted to write music for Schoenberg's libretto for the 3rd Act? Did Schoenberg leave any indications of what he planned for it?

Funnily enough, I bumped into a colleague in the ROH shop before tonight's performance who declared he was tempted to stay put in his seat after Act 2 and wait for the third act! He told me that Zoltán Kocsis asked the Schoenberg estate to take a look at the sketches the composer had made for Act 3, just to see how much there was. Apparently, "it's all there" and just needed orchestrating, which Kocsis did in 2010. There has been a concert performance, but thus far it has never been staged.