|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Astounding Moses und Aron
| Article
# : |
18890 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1991 |
2,044 Words |
| Author
: |
Lawrence O'Toole
Lawrence O'Toole writes for Entertainment Weekly and other
national publications. |
Without question the most astounding musical event of 1990 was the New York City Opera's production of Arnold Schoenberg's monumental and unfinished twelve-tone opera Moses und Aron--its first staged production in New York. Two acts out of three were completed by the atonal master before he died, and amazingly the opera, composed in 1932, was never given a performance until a concert version was produced in 1954; a staging was given in 1957. The NYCO actually borrowed its production from that of the 1978 Cologne City Opera, with sets and costumes by Achim Freyer, direction by Hans Neugebauer, and lighting by Hans Toelstede.
Intense and Internal
Moses und Aron is both an intense and internal work, choosing the exchange of ideas--between Moses and his brother Aron--over the niceties of conventional narrative. Moses (Richard Cross), to whom God reveals his word, is paradoxically lacking eloquence of tongue. Appropriately, the role is executed in a declamatory mode now familiar to us: Sprechstimme, a style of delivery somewhere between speech and song.
Moses, according to Schoenberg (who wrote the libretto himself), may have been chosen but he has not been gifted with persuasive powers equal to those of his brother. Consequently, Aron, a high-tessitura tenor (Thomas Young), is sung. Moses operates on blind faith in God's word; Aron has no faith, yet can convince through reason (and for the dramatic purposes of the opera, through the sheer beauty of his tone) the impatient Israelites of anything: to believe or not. Aron is the talent agent, Moses the client, if you will.
It is this dialectic that informs the entire opera. Moses und Aron is a ninety-minute dialogue between opposing parts of the self--a prolonged drama of indecision between faith and reason. It can also be viewed as what T.S. Eliot termed "a raid on the inarticulate," where feelings such as faith cannot be expressed by words. How, asks the opera ultimately, does one express the inexpressible? In fact, the last line of the opera (in its present form) is left to Moses: "O word, thou word, that I lack."
Schoenberg Refused
And so, the unfinished Moses und Aron is in effect finished after the second act. Although Schoenberg wrote the words for the third act, he did not even begin the music (he was, incredibly enough, refused foundation money). Perhaps the music had already said
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
