Customer Reviews

Arnold Schoenberg - Moses und Aron

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

On the music performance: This is a sweeping performance. The conductor Daniele Gatti is well versed in verismo, and it shows. The orchestra of Wiener Staatsoper is most responsive to the demanding score. Both Grundheber as Moses and Moser as Aron seize every possibility for lyrical expression. The double choruses carry out the mission impossible by singing almost all notes in pitch. (If you have ever sung a 12-tone music, then you'd understand what I mean.) Overall, it is quite satisfying.

There are only minor reservations I have on the musical performance. The orchestral playing emphasizes the emotional sweep rather than the clarity of the polyphony linear structure. It's therefore not as easy to hear every note as in Pierre Boulez's CD set, a much cooler (and leaner) performance with razor-sharp precision. Thomas Moser's Aron is quite good, but there are more than one passage where his voice shows strain.

On the stage production: If you are reading this, you probably already know that Schoenberg's stage directions are absurdly unrealizable. (And the late composer admitted as such!) For example, the biblical miracles are to be performed on stage, so are the Four Naked Virgins copulating with the Golden Calf. The stage director Nickler takes a practical approach. TV monitors show the miracles in the first act, while presenting a backdrop for the Orgy Scene from the second act. The Golden Calf is presented as 3 Golden Words "ICH BIN GOTT" (I am God.)

Personally, I like the production of the first act, but find the second act not as satisfactory. The "consumer materialism" presentation did not capture my imagination too well, and it seems to depart from Schoenberg's stage direction a little too far for my taste.

There is a bonus pre-performance interview for about 24 minutes in Disc 2, which is recommended to watch PRIOR to the performance.

Overall, I don't think this will be a landmark performance. It is, however, a worthy production of an important masterpiece.

Arnold Schoenberg composed Moses und Aron when he was at the most high compositional maturity . He began a new compositional technique more than ten years before . And really I think that this opera is one of the principal works he composed and the most fascinating dodecaphonic music. Moses und Aron is in the top of the operas of the twentieth century, with Pelleas et Melisande by Debussy, the last operas of Janácek ,Salomé and Elektra by Strauss and Woozeck and Lulu by Berg. I believe that the time of Moses und Aron arrived, and the first DVD of this magnificent score must be commemorate .Fortunately the performance recorded here is very good. I hoped that the versions of the Metropolitan opera from New York and the production of the Amsterdam opera could be the first DVD of this opera . But the surprise is that this version is by far superior: like Georg Solti, the conductor here is not one specialist of Schoenberg, and this gave more impact in the dramatic sense .I believe that Boulez , in his two recordings , made one mistake conducting this opera without drama. Gatti make this opera sound with all we can expect from one dramatic music.
Grundheber ,that was a fantastic Wozzeck with Abbado , is superb here. Thomas Moser sings Aron like a beautiful music. Thomas Moser is comparable with Langridge ,one interpreter fantastic in the famous recording conducted by Solti . The orchestra, the two chorus and all the soloists play this music with the same fluidity of Mozart , Brahms and Mahler. The mise en scene is too very good . The costumes , the sets and the scenic idea work very well. I'm very happy with this DVD. Finally we can see this opera and hear the music played with a masterful performance .

This was an amazing production of Schönberg's masterpiece Moses und Aron. During the first act the color scheme of the stage is black with the word "ich" written all over in white chalk. During the second act gold dominates the stage. Everyone is wearing gold and a huge television screen shows pictures of bullfighting and surgery to go along with the ballets. The second act was really strange but cool! I do wish though that they would show more of the orchestra and the conductor. Great production of the best opera ever!

I recall Franz Grundheber with Abbado Conducting at Vienna State Opera as this production, He inflicts a ponderous soul immediately while having strains of the intellectualism and an earthy quality all simultaneously; All the roles are strong and focused herein: The enormous Thomas Moser, Tenor, mellifuous, flowery,intokicating timbres plays Aaron were wonderful,overwhelmingly persuasive, a communicator but he has something in the background of his persona not easily seen;perhaps the Gold portion of the opera,latter, where Gold dominates the stage:Aaron now in a Gold pitchman jacket;, a maker of images with Words only, Words in-and-of-themselves come to assume a primary role in this work, We see the chorus of Men and Women writing with white chalk on a massive stagebackdrop blackboard ICH. "I", God told Moses when he was asked "What is your name??", God replied "I Am That I Am" ICH BIN GOTT,(Exodus) is later also chalked on the board, and finally when the indivisible God seems too distant in the future,as a Utopia The metaphor for the Golden Calf ICH BIN GOTT, GOTT ICH BIN, is inscribed in large gold letters,and tyhen made into large 7-foot Letters; These letters are then fornicated on-with,in the company of four Blonde Bimbos,also in Gold party dresses only a tad duller gold: who then make love to other women and men, also deprived, depraved of existence without God, without Commandments, without meaningful directions.
This production is very compact, it's trajectory of simple yet signifying colours places the work in its context:it does the most with the least in Light; a source of all wealth for the earth; Light has a subtle way of utilizing colours for meanings-signifiers like when the Israelite masses done their black/heavy oppresive coats of exile, for brighter simply White Shirts, and White underwear. Women as well in white satin slips, one piece items.

If you follow the scholarship on the subject; Moses and Aaron and the paradigms associated with this biblical canon, there are some intellectuals/academia who cannot see Schoenberg's work as convincing,or useful(To whom?) and a direct contradiction to other Jewish Bible interpretations. These arguments are eternal and will remain forever eternal and unresolved. Schoenberg's subject is quite ambitious, chosing to utilize his newly discovered 12-Tone language pinned up to the massive structural challenges of this dramatic opera-fragment. It really functions as an Opera, for Moses and Aaron are not as prominent of figures as you may think, the masses here have extraordinary roles and functions much mirrors contemporary society,points scholars seem to miss,soloists also emerging from the ranks,Elders, and Tribe Leaders, Everyone is a person so everyone (not Moses or Aaron however) carry photos of themselves, looking/examining their photos from time to time,sthe signifier here is subjectivity, (What can Moses do for me that I cannot already do for myself)subjectivity then is what we all need to prosper;but there is also Dissent in the ranks, Elders coaching the populace,in the loss of faith,(one Elder looked like Irvine Arditti) the debaucheries, murders, suicides, fornications that occur are well crafted, we see animals being slaughtered, the throats cut open gushing blood,surgeries, and mild forms of porn, very mild.
Musical construction here within this context cannot be arbitrary in fact every measure of music every rhytmic structure must have a purpose in this work, nothing to suggest arbitrary melodies or orchestral accompaniment;and extra=programmatic misconceptions are not contemplated,But all these featuresare what in fact happens in view of many scholars..Schoenberg was not consistent, misunderstood the Jewish Bible and the globe, came to Judaism late in life:primarily academic views; Purity of procedure in music composition has a cleansing aspect as well.This is one of the paradigm Schoenberg dealt. His newly found dodecaphonic language now would be put to its ultimate test.In world view Schoenberg, so the argument goes, favored an authoritarianism, (as Freud on the identical subject), this within the torturous period of Nazi ascent to power.They saw the figure of Moses as the law-giver, the Warrior, the Liberator;(and this was ultimatly The USA in WW2 who was the savior of all the above)Schoenberg however tried to do the impossible set the "Absolute" to music to make it Real.And to some extent he succeeded. The task was more than one genius in music alone could handle in that the work was left unfinished, but then was there a possible way to end the work?, I think M & A functions best within its unfinished reality, more then in tune with real reality.

... at least by analogy, extrapolation, or allegory. Witness the conviction held by both the Hanoverians and the Jacobites in England, when Handel was writing "Saul" and "Esther," that they were the new Chosen People, each righteously entitled to exterminate the other. I take Arnold Schönberg's single opera "Moses and Aron" to be more an allegory of Humanity, in its folly unready to surrender the old securities of revealed religion or to accept the unsensuous consolations of modern relativism. One of the rewards of relativism, of course, is that YOU can formulate your own interpretation of this most philosophical of all operas.

It's widely maintained that Aron and Moses was never finished, that Schönberg intended a third act but couldn't wrap it up. Personally, I find the ending as staged here by the Vienna State Opera very satisfactory. Moses sitting alone in desolation on the stage, murmuring about his failure to express the inexpressible, to wring finite meaning out of infinity.

My friend from Utah!, Y.P., has scooped me in his modest objections to the staging. The music has to be strong to pin my eyes and ears to a TV screen for 110 minutes, with all the clumsy shuffling! So much shoving and lurching, and yet so static! The Slovak Philharmonic Chorus needs a serious workshop in body awareness. And I was really looking forward to the four naked hussies copulating with the Golden Calf! Luckily the music is strong - very strong, even if the orchestra lacked transparency - and unique. The pairing of a speaking actor, Moses, and a singing actor, Aron, orating simultaneously is electrifying. Thomas Moser sings his role of Aron with just enough diffident insecurity and strain to sound like Yahweh's second fiddle.

Another level of allegory: Schönberg certainly considered himself the Moses of music, leading the orchestra out of bondage to late classical/romantic tonal chromaticism into the Promised Land of serialism. How shocking to find that I'm no longer shocked. This opera and Berg's Violin Concerto, to my ears, are the most affective and commodious of all twelve-tone compositions.

Perhaps a more polished CD performance would satisfy many Schönberg devotees, but I like opera on DVD. Even the sight of a bunch of stodgy Slovaks in black suits and yarmulkas shaped like fezes clumping about on stage helps me shut out other sounds and thoughts.

This is an interesting opera, and this is the first video recording of it, at least that I know. It is rather hard for ears not familiar with this kind of music.
The original stage director Wily decker got ill, and Reto Nickler took charge of the production. He was forced to integrate his own concept into an already set design, and I think we can notice it...
The video and sound quality are excellent, and so are the cast, orquestra and chorus. Good work in a most difficult opera.
The production has some interesting things, and others not so, buy it worth the money. Within the bonus is an interview with the singers and stage director, and the 3º unfinished act, as a text gallery. It is a live recording from the Vienna State Opera made in 2006.
For lovers of modern works.

And that's saying a lot. But horrible. Truly horrible in just about every way, though the godawful staging is clearly the worst. The director, one Reto Nickler, according to the included booklet took over at short notice from one Willy Decker but that is no excuse. These are crimes of commission, not of omission.

It is ironic that just as Moses' revelation is destroyed by Aron's weakness, Schoenberg's art is destroyed by Nickler's ego.

Schoenberg's own stage directions as written in the score will never be done in our time, not that they couldn't be if you read them carefully. But they may be taken as an ideal to aim for at least. Perhaps he was laboring under the delusion that by giving the director so much to try for he would be kept out of mischief. Faint hope, at least as applied to the egos of today's indefatigable Euro-trashers.

Usually I can simply ignore the staging if it doesn't get in the way of the music and text too much, but in this case you simply have to turn off the video. Then you hear that the musical performance isn't that hot either. Schoenberg's glorious orchestral music is constantly being drowned out by the raucous sounding chorus or by Moser's troubled tenor- more on that below.

Schoenberg's work is extremely profound and extremely complex. Coming to grips with it is a difficult though worthwhile task under the best of conditions. Here it is impossible. The last thing you need is a third (grossly, comically inferior) layer of "meaning" added by some lightweight clown.

If you are going to put yourself through this DVD (it is sadly the first and only and who knows when we'll have an acceptable one) hopefully you know the piece. I'd advise first listening to a good performance on CD. I like the East German performance on Berlin Classics with Herbert Kegel leading the Leipzig Radio Chorus & Orchestra in 1978. Sound is fine and Reiner Goldberg a surprisingly good Aron.

Otherwise, know that:

At the beginning of the opera the chorus of people is NOT onstage. Moses' interlocutor is God in the form of the Burning Bush, the voice of which Schoenberg assigns to a group of six solo voices that are off-stage. But it is difficult to recognize that with all these people Nickler has purposelessly milling about in the dark.

Ditto Scene 2: Moses meets Aron in the wasteland. Not in some town square surrounded by the same unwanted chorus.

There is nothing in Schoenberg to connect a giant "ICH" ("I") with the golden calf. The booklet pleads that a natural depiction would seem "outdated". More like doing ANYTHING indicated by the composer in the score is considered a personal defeat by these clowns. A gold spray-painted statue approximation of a golden calf would not have broken the budget. The Staatsoper probably has a small herd of such things in the warehouse if you'd look.

The characters are constantly taking off or putting back on dark coats, robes, or gowns to reveal white garments underneath. This also is not Schoenberg but a Nickler thing so I wouldn't distract your concentration trying to figure out what he means by it. White = good, black = bad seems to work. How profound.

The 8x10 headshots that the chorus members carry around and that later wind up on the big football scoreboard that dominates the stage also are best ignored, along with the other Euro-trash staple grossnesses projected, like close-ups of animal cruelty, bull-fighting, and of course a few sexy babes. (Re the bull-fighting- I've always thought it very significant both in the opera and in the book of Exodus that the god they make for themselves is a golden CALF, not a typical Apis-style bull. But we've got no calf, as Nickler just gives us a huge "ICH". Talk about projecting...)

Grundheber is an excellent Moses. Wasted here- one cannot help ascribing his noble, troubled countenance to the musical-dramatic blasphemies surrounding him as opposed to the biblical ones. But Moser is surprisingly problematic as Aron. I've often thought Aron calls for the same sort of voice (though we seldom get it there) as Loge in Rheingold. It needs to be capable of noble, heroic utterances, and let the audience figure out as the drama develops the guy is basically false- faithless, in love with himself, and weak. The role is a killer, but one would have thought from Moser's background in both Mozart and Wagner that he'd be a good choice. Instead he has too much trouble with the high tessitura and is just loud and uncomfortable. Which, with the chorus, completely covers the orchestra which is a shame because Schoenberg does something magical in the orchestral music that somehow conveys there is something magical in Aron's words, that will turn their false interpretation into orthodox scripture, never to be doubted down through the centuries.

I can't say much about conductor Gatti. He is blameless so far as I can hear, which isn't much. I'm reasonably certain these balance problems wouldn't have happened at the Staatsoper. More likely an artifact of the recording process or transfer to DVD. He might have asked for more rehearsals with the chorus, which when it DOES sing is pretty untogether. And the mini-group that does the Burning Bush sounds more like a half-dozen bitter-enders' obligatory complaints when the bartender stops serving.

I doubt if anything I've said can make you pass up what is for many the first chance (after half-century) to actually see this landmark in the history of art. But at least you've been warned of a few things. Try to get hold of a libretto or score first.