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Stuttgart Staatsorchester 2 CDs The Württemberg Stuttgart State Orchestra has a history of over four hundred years, established in 1589 as the SCHOENBERG Court Orchestra of Württemberg. Over the generations there have been collaborations with musicians of distinction, among them Leonhard Lechner, the Frobergers, Niccolò Jommelli, Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, Konradin Kreutzer, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Carl Maria von Weber. Berlioz praised the orchestra, when he appeared with it as conductor, and in the 1880s Stuttgart was one of the first to stage the complete Ring cycle, conducted by the then Moses und Aron General Music Director Herman Zumpe, who had assisted Wagner at the first Bayreuth Festival. The tradition of first performances has included the première of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 1912, conducted by the composer, in Schöne • Merritt • Bespalovaite • Schneider • Ebbecke • Dürr 1921 of a one-acter by Hindemith, and in recent times works by Orff, Penderecki, Glass, Zender, Riehm and Hölszky. In the twentieth century there was collaboration with Fritz Busch, Carl Leonhardt, Franz Konwitschny, Hans Swarowsky and Herbert Albert, and in particular with Max von Schillings and Ferdinand Leitner, and in more Stuttgart State Opera Chorus • Polish Radio Choir, Kraków recent years with conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, Vaclav Neumann, Silvio Varviso, Janos Kulka, Dennis Russell Davies, Garcia Navarro und Gabriele Ferro as Music Directors and Conductor, and as guests, Georg Solti, Carlo Stuttgart State Opera Children’s Chorus Maria Giulini and Riccardo Chailly. Lothar Zagrosek took over the helm of the orchestra in 1997, and has been responsible for a number of important and innovative performances. In 2002 the orchestra was named Orchestra of Stuttgart State Orchestra • Roland Kluttig the Year by Opernwelt. The work of the orchestra has included recordings and DVDs, in addition to symphony concerts and chamber music performed by members of the orchestra.
Roland Kluttig
Born in Radeberg in 1968, Roland Kluttig studied at the Dresden Musikhochschule and made his début as a conductor with Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Dresden Festival. He held an award from the German Music Council and the Schloss Solitude Academy and worked with the conductors Peter Eötvös, Sylvain Cambreling and John Eliot Gardiner. From 1993 to 1999 he directed the Berlin New Music Chamber Ensemble. From 2000 to 2004 he was Kapellmeister and Musical Assistant to Lothar Zagrosek at the Stuttgart State Opera, where he conducted the revival of Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore, Lachenmann’s Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Don Carlo, Les contes d’Hoffmann, La finta giardiniera and Don Giovanni. In 2004 he was entrusted with the musical direction of Morton Feldman’s Neither in Stuttgart and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Innsbruck. He started 2005 with the première of Richard Ayre’s opera The cricket recovers at the Aldeburgh Festival. He makes regular guest appearances with the SWR Orchestras in Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as ASKO Amsterdam and the Vienna Klangforum. He has carried out engagements at the Berlin Festival, Munich Biennale, the Donaueschinger Musiktage and the Holland Festival and since his American début in 2004 has been principal conductor of the Crested Butte Music Festival.
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Arnold Stuttgart State Opera Chorus
SCHOENBERG The Stuttgart State Opera Chorus traces its history back to 1552 as a court musical establishment. It developed as (1874-1951) the State Opera Chorus under the leadership of its long-standing choral director Ulrich Eistert (1972-2001) and Michael Alber (since 2001), with the deputy chorus-master Johannes Knecht. It has acquired a critical and public Moses und Aron reputation for its homogenous sound and its dramatic presence, with singers of soloistic quality and experience. It Text by the Composer was for the sixth time named Opera Chorus of the Year by the review Opernwelt, among other things for its Acts I and II performances in Moses und Aron, Lachenmann’s Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Götterdämmerung, and Verdi’s Otello. With a wide-ranging repertoire the chorus also appears in symphony and Moses ...... Wolfgang Schöne chamber concerts. Aaron ...... Chris Merritt Young Girl ...... Irena Bespalovaite Young Man ...... Bernhard Schneider Michael Alber Another Man / Ephraimite ...... Michael Ebbecke Born in Tuttlingen, Michael Alber studied school music, jazz, and orchestral and choral conducting in Stuttgart, Priest ...... Karl-Friedrich Dürr Trossingen and in Vienna with Otmat Suitner. From 1994 to 2001 he was deputy chorus-master and since the First Elder ...... Ulrich Frisch 2001/02 season has been director of the Stuttgart State Opera Chorus, preparing some twenty new productions, Second Elder ...... Sa‰a Vrabac including King Arthur, Rienzi, Die Gezeichneten, Der Rosenkavalier, Giuseppe e Sylvia, Das Mädchen mit den Third Elder ...... Stephan Storck Schwefelhölzern, Norma, La Bohème and Don Carlo. He has superintended a number of revivals and has conducted the State Opera Chorus in chamber concerts, including a première by Stephan Storck. He is associated also with Invalid Woman ...... Emma Curtis other choruses, including the SWR Vocal Ensemble. Four Naked Virgins Irena Bespalovaite · Helga Rós Indridadóttir · Naomi Ishizu · Emma Curtis Polish Radio Choir, Kraków A Naked Youth ...... Alois Riedel The Polish Radio Choir was founded by Jerzy Gert in 1947 and until 1993 was an integral part of the Orchestra and Six Solo Voices Choir of Polish Radio and Television. Since January 1995 the ensemble has existed independently as the Polish Barbara Kosviner · Ilona Wirgler · Ingrid Zielosko · Siegfried Laukner Radio Choir in Kraków with Wlodzimierz Siedlik appointed as its director and artistic manager. The Polish Radio Peter Schaufelberger · Sa‰a Vrabac Choir has performed and recorded innumerable vocal and instrumental compositions under the baton of many distinguished Polish and foreign conductors, among them Stanisl/aw Wisl/ocki, Jan Krenz, Jerzy Semkow, Giuseppe Stuttgart State Orchestra Sinopoli, Yuri Ahronovitch, and Bruno Bartoletti, as well as having Nadia Boulanger as a guest. The choir has a wide range of repertoire of unaccompanied and accompanied choral music from various periods, and has recorded Stuttgart State Opera Chorus • Stuttgart State Opera Children’s Chorus many works for the archive of the Polish Radio and CDs for Polish and foreign companies. The choir has (Chorus-master: Michael Alber) collaborated in staged performances of Schoenberg’s opera Moses und Aron in various theatres, including Polish Radio Choir, Kraków Darmstadt, Palermo, Stuttgart, and Hamburg. (Chorus-master: Marek Kluza) Roland Kluttig A performance by the Stuttgart State Opera Stage direction: Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito Production designer: Anna Viebrock • Artistic director: Klaus Zehelein 8.660158-59 211 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 10
Bernhard Schneider CD 1 52:02 Act II
Bernhard Schneider has been a member of the Stuttgart State Opera since 1998. He studied at the Cologne Act I 2 Scene 1: Aron und die siebzig Ältesten vor dem Musikhochschule with Hans Sotin and during his training worked with the German Opera am Rhein, followed by Berg der Offenbarung 1 Scene 1: Moses Berufung (The Calling of Moses) (Aaron and the Seventy Elders before the engagements in Krefeld-Mönchengladbach and in Gelsenkirchen-Wuppertal. He made his début at Bayreuth in 1996, „Einziger, ewiger, allgegenwärtiger, unsichtbarer singing Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger, the Young Sailor in Tristan und Isolde, First Nobleman in Lohengrin and und unverstellbarer Gott!“ Mount of Revelation) 3:34 a Squire in Parsifal. In Bremen he appeared as Ernesto in Don Pasquale and David in Die Meistersinger. In Stuttgart (Only, eternal, all-present, invisible and „Vierzig Tage! Vierzig Tage liegen wir he has sung Andres in Wozzeck, Truffaldino in The Love for Three Oranges, Kilian in Der Freischütz, Lucano / unimaginable God!) 10:05 nun schon hier!“ Famigliare in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Czekalinski in The Queen of Spades, Iro in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria, (Moses) (Forty Days! Forty days we are still waiting here!) Froh in Das Rheingold, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Don Velasco in Masaniello furioso as well as Oronte in Alcina, 2 Scene 2: Moses begegnet Aron in der Wüste (Seventy Elders, Priest, Aaron) the First Jew in Salome, the Algerian in Intolleranza 1960 and Wenzel in The Bartered Bride. (Moses meets Aaron in the Wilderness) 3 Scene 2: „Wo ist Moses? Daß wir ihn zerreißen!“ „Du Sohn meiner Väter … Du Sohn meines Vaters, (Where is Moses? That we may tear him in Bruder des Geistes“ pieces!) 8:35 Michael Ebbecke (Son of my fathers … Son of my father, brother in spirit) 7:55 (Chorus, Seventy Elders, Aaron) (Aaron, Moses) 4 Scene 3: Das goldene Kalb und der Altar Michael Ebbecke is a Kammersänger in the Stuttgart State Opera and has sung all the major baritone rôles, 3 Scene 3: Moses und Aron verkünden dem Volk (The Golden Calf and the Altar) including Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva, Figaro, Germont, Ulisse, Wolfram, the Herald in Lohengrin and the rôle die Botschaft Gottes „Diese Bild bezeugt daß in allem was ist, of Verdi in Hans Neuenfels’s première of Adriana Hölszky’s opera Giuseppe e Sylvia. Guest engagements have (Moses and Aaron announce to the People God’s ein Gott lebt!“ taken him to Buenos Aires, Geneva, Lisbon, Prague, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Vienna and Zurich. Recent rôles in Message) (This image is witness that in all that is, Stuttgart include Ludovico Nardi in Die Gezeichneten, Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus, Don Fernando in Fidelio and „Ich hab ihn gesehn, als eine feurige Flamme“ God lives!) 10:26 Jochanaan in Salome. (I saw him as a burning flame) 6:25 (Aaron, Invalid Woman, Beggars, Old Men, (Young Girl, Young Man, Another Man, Priest, Chorus) Seventy Elders) Karl-Friedrich Dürr 4 Scene 4: „Bringt ihr Erhörung, Botschaft des 5 „Frei unter eigenen Herren“ neuen Gottes?“ (Free, under their own masters) 10:12 (Ephraimite, Tribal Leaders, Youth, Seventy Elders) Karl-Friedrich Dürr was born in Stuttgart. During his period at university, where he was awarded a doctorate and (Do you brings news, a message from the new God?) 6:55 6 taught for a short time in schools, he studied singing privately with Günter Reich. He made his début in 1980 in the „Du goldener Gott, wie Lust durchströmt (Chorus, Moses, Aaron, Priest, Girl, mich dein Glanz“ title-rôle of Rihm’s Jakob Lenz in Stuttgart and has sung leading Mozart rôles, including Figaro in the Zadek Young Man, Man) staging, Leporello, Bartolo in the new staging of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, as well as (You golden god, as pleasure your glow 5 „Allmächtiger, meine Kraft ist zu Ende“ streams through me) 9:11 Klingsor, Biterolf and Kothner. He sang Eisenhardt in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, the Animal-Tamer / Athlete in (Almighty, my strength is at an end) 10:55 Lulu, Joe in Mahagonny, the Police Chief in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the Cook in The Love for Three (Moses, Aaron, Chorus, Young Girl, (Girl, Naked Virgins, Seventy Elders, Oranges, Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Third Citizen / Third Senator in Die Gezeichneten, the Maestro in Young Man, Man, Priest) Naked Youth, Chorus) Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, Venanzio in I pazzi per progetto, Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffmann, the 6 „Alles für die Freiheit!“ 7 Scene 4: Moses steigt vom Berg herab Sacristan in Tosca and First Soldier in Salome. He made a guest appearance as Leporello at the Dresden (All for freedom!) 9:47 (Moses descends from the Mountain) Semperoper, as Herr von Faninal in Dresden, Bonn and Düsseldorf, as Eisenhardt at the Paris Bastille Opéra, with (Man, Chorus, Priest, Moses, Aaron) „Vergeh, du Abbild des Unvermögens, appearances also in Trieste and New York. In 1998 he was given the title of Kammersänger. das Grenzenlose in ein Bild zu fassen!“ CD 2 60:47 (Away, you image of impotence, to hold the limitless in an image!) 1:33 1 Zwischenspiel (Interlude) „Wo ist Moses? … Wo ist der Führer? … (Moses, Chorus) Lange schon hat ihn keiner gesehn!“ 8 Scene 5: Moses und Aron (Moses and Aaron) (Where is Moses? … Where is the leader? … „Aron, was hast du getan? … Nicht Neues!“ No one has seen him for a long time!) 2:43 (Aaron, what have you done? … Nothing new!) 14:33 (Chorus) (Moses, Aaron, Chorus) 8.660158-59 10 3 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 4
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Wolfgang Schöne Moses and Aaron Wolfgang Schöne studied at the Hanover and Hamburg Musikhochschule and began his career as a concert singer. “Before their ears you shall do wonders” directly programmatic representation of the antagonism At the Stuttgart State Opera, where he has been a member of the company since 1973, his rôles have included those that gives the narrative its structure: the freeing of God’s of Don Giovanni, Wolfram, Amfortas, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Ford in Falstaff, Eugene Onegin, Orest and Like many Jewish artists Arnold Schoenberg, in view of chosen people from its enslavement under the Egyptian Barak, the General in Henze’s Wir erreichen den Fluss, Pentheus in Die Bassariden, the Dutchman, Don Alfonso in the increasing antisemitism in Germany and Austria in idolaters. A comparison with other contemporary Così fan tutte, King Roger, Mamm’Agata in Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, the Father in the 1920s and 1930s, found himself brought to a adaptations makes this clear. Paul Dessau’s oratorio Hänsel und Gretel, the Wanderer in Siegfried, Ludovico Nardi in Die Gezeichneten, Dr Schön/Jack the Ripper in clarification of his relationship with Judaism. In the Haggadah (1936) comes to mind, with a text by Max Lulu, a part that he has sung at many major opera-houses, including the Paris Opéra Bastille, as well as Jochanaan in summer of 1921 an anonymous letter had called upon Brod, and Kurt Weill’s Weg der Verheissung (text by Salome, and Lindorf, Coppelius, Dappertutto and Dr Miracle in Les contes d’Hoffmann. With a repertoire of more the then 46-year-old composer to give up his holiday Franz Werfel, 1934/35, first performed in 1937 in New than seventy rôles he has made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera, Munich, Hamburg, the Berlin place at Mattsee, a threat that was to end in the York as The Eternal Road). These works show in the Deutsche Oper, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam and at the Salzburg Festival. In 1978 he was given the title systematic destruction of his position in musical life and image of Egyptian slavery a comparison with the Kammersänger. his expulsion into American exile. This break in his life unprecedented level of oppression and persecution of marks also the beginning of his work on the theme of the Jews in Hitler’s Germany. In remembering the Moses, discernible from 1922. He himself in 1933 biblical exodus into the promised land they seek hope Chris Merritt returned to the faith of Moses, which he had left in 1898 for the present. Schoenberg on the other hand takes no in favour of Lutheranism. account of the ‘drama’ of the exodus and with it the Chris Merritt was born in Oklahoma City and completed his education at the Oklahoma City University, which The opera Moses and Aaron, written in these years of relationship of the Jews to their oppressors. These bestowed on him an honorary doctorate. He has made guest appearances at the leading opera houses in the world, in upheaval between 1928 and 1932, remained unfinished: themes, as well as their political implications, New York, London, Paris, Milan, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam, Venice, Rome, Barcelona and Buenos of the three planned acts (I. Calling, II. The Golden Calf, Schoenberg dealt with separately in his play Der Aires. Among his most important rôles have been Idomeneo, Tito, Ferrando, Tamino and the great tenor rôles of III. Aaron’s Death) the first two were completed, of the biblische Weg (The Biblical Way) (1922-27). In the Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and Offenbach. He has appeared in Moses und Aron, Oberon, Busoni’s Doktor Faustus and third there exist several unfortunately unfinished attempts opera Schoenberg’s objective is to represent the Messiaen’s St François d’Assise at the Salzburg Festival. He sang in the world première of Henze’s Venus und at a text by Schoenberg himself, who here, as already in personality clashes between the individual characters of Adonis in Munich, in Rusalka at the New York Metropolitan Opera and appeared as Herod in Genoa, Bologna and his ‘drama with music’ Die glückliche Hand (The Moses, Aaron and the people, and, because of the at The Netherlands Opera; he sang Wozzeck and in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Katya Kabanová at Fortunate Hand) and the oratorio Die Jakobsleiter religio-philosophical positioning of the opera, there are the Hamburg State Opera. Other appearances include Henze’s Boulevard Solitude at Covent Garden and (Jacob’s Ladder), was his own librettist. Nevertheless it no direct references to the historical present. Glyndebourne, and Ariadne auf Naxos in Dresden. In Stuttgart he sang the rôle of the Fugitive in Intolleranza 1960. must be seen as the composer’s ‘fragmentary The eponymous heroes of this drama of ideas are masterpiece’. This assessment of the opera is not only the dissimilar brothers, Moses and Aaron. Their dispute because it is his most comprehensive score, but also articulates the necessary and, at the same time, Irena Bespalovaite because it represents the climax of his association with impossible expression of the idea of the ‘one, eternal the dodecaphonic method of composition, described by and unknowable God’, to whom no image can do Irena Bespalovaite is Lithuanian by birth and studied at the Vilnius Music Academy and at the Salzburg Mozarteum Schoenberg himself as ‘a method of composition with justice. From this springs Moses’ tragedy: on the one with Lilian Sukis and Breda Zakotnik. She completed her diploma at the Mozarteum in 2001 and was awarded the twelve notes related only to each other’. Schoenberg hand is his conviction of the absolute and unknowable Lilli Lehmann Medal. Her first engagements in 1996 brought appearances as Susanna and as Despina at the Vilnius himself declared with some pride: ‘I could even base a nature of God, and, on the other, lies his own inability to Music Academy. In 1997/98 she appeared in the International Summer Music Academy, singing Ännchen at the whole opera, Moses and Aaron, on a single tone-row’ fulfil his mission to communicate what, by its very Mozarteum, Pamina, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. From 1998 to 2001 she (Composition with Twelve Notes). nature, is virtually an impossible task. The chorus of the appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival under Claudio Abbado and René Jacobs. In 1999 she sang the rôle The principle of integral musical construction, the ‘Children of Israel’, as the third principal character in of the First Cretan Woman in Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival and made guest appearances in Zurich, Aachen and fact that all the musical forms of the opera are generated the opera, represents the attitude of the masses. Bonn, where she sang Tebaldo, Gretel and the Sandman and the Dew Fairy. She has been a member of the Stuttgart from one and the same basic tone-row, demanded a very Individual figures that, as a solo quartet, from time to State Opera company since the 2001/02 season, singing Adele in Die Fledermaus, Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, specific method of dramatic composition. It draws its time come forward from the crowd, do not appear as Ginevra Scotti in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten and Tebaldo in Don Carlo. She has also appeared as La Musica / figures and motifs from the biblical Book of Exodus, the individuals, but express, together with other smaller Proserpina in L’Orfeo and as Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, as well as Serpetta in La finta giardiniera. foundation myth of the Jewish people, yet avoids a solo parts, the different moods of the people. In this 8.660158-59 4 9 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 8
horses, porters and carts are brought together, bearing others near him and calls out. The people gather way, as the people are subjected to a succession of from their biblical sense’, Fedele d’Amico has precisely offerings of gold, grain, wine, oil, animals and so on. together. Moses appears, bidding the image of the different opinions, so the collective dynamic of their stated, ‘for the Bible the resort of Aaron to the golden The offerings they bring are unloaded and heaped up. Golden Calf be gone. The idol disappears and the people innermost beliefs finds expression. calf is a falling back into idolatry, rather as heathen Preparations are made for sacrifice, with the sacrifical move back, leaving Moses and Aaron alone. The position that Aaron assumes as interpreter and polytheism is opposed the monotheism of Moses. For animals garlanded. The animals are slaughtered and communicator between Moses and the people is often Schoenberg’s Aaron the golden calf is simply a further pieces of meat thrown among the crowd, who fight over Scene 5: Moses and Aaron dismissed as that of a demagogue and agitator. In fact he symbol for the same God of Moses, a visible sign, them or eat them raw. Cooking vessels are brought in, is a mediator who shares the thinking of Moses and at indispensable for the people for them to come into set over newly kindled fires, and burnt offerings are 8 Moses asks Aaron what he has done. Aaron explains the same time knows of the people’s need for concrete contact in some way with his invisible being, and to be made. There is a dance of slaughtermen. A sick woman that he had provided the people with the miracles they images. The voice from the burning bush which able to perceive and love him also in imperfect and touches the Golden Calf and is cured. The meat is needed for their eyes and ears, obeying the voice within announces to Moses in the first scene of the opera limited form. […] For Moses, on the other hand, every stewed in the cooking vessels and roasted on the fire; him. He had thought Moses dead and as the people ‘Before their ears you shall do wonders’ defines the ‘sign’ is only degradation: and of course not only the there is wine and oil, and the sacrifice of animals expected justice and law from Moses, so Aaron had miracle of authentification - Moses’ staff that will turn miracles and the material promises but also the table of continues. Beggars cast off their rags, and some old men given this to them in concrete form, providing them with into a serpent, his hand marked by leprosy and healed the law, which he breaks for that reason as a trivial offer themselves in sacrifice. an image. The word of Moses had destroyed the image, again, the changing of water into blood - not as a form materialisation of the divine ethic.’ (Berlin, 1959). The but Aaron argues that the words of Moses needed image of magic, but aims at the miracle of verbal mediation, at tables of the law and the golden calf: in the radical 5 Horses are heard, and the tribal leaders and the and miracle in order to be understood. Moses tells him the, in Schoenberg’s terminology, ‘spoken wonder’ that interpretation of Schoenberg these – the analogy is with Ephraimite ride in. They dismount before the Golden that he bears the tables of God’s commandments, giving the ‘slowness of tongue’ of Moses cannot achieve. the compositional style - are in no way categorically Calf, and offer homage. A young man, feverish and them to Aaron; the idea has power over words and Aaron’s ability as a speaker is the capacity to find different: they are emanations of one and the same emaciated, tries to strike at the idolaters, but is seized by images. Aaron, though, pleads his own understanding of metaphors and interpret them. He is in a position to abstract series method, an aesthetic cypher for the the Ephraimite and killed by the tribal leaders. The the people and what they need; the tables of the law too reach the people with imagery and make it possible for inexpressible divine name. So this score, sublimated to people exchange gifts among themselves, then turning are an image, a part of the idea. Moses then smashes the them to understand themselves in a clear biblical the highest point, peaks in a sequence of unique to drunkenness, as wine is given out, and to an stone tables of the law and seeks from God release from picture. Aaron’s gift of verbal communication and the illustrative suggestions: in the dance around the golden increasingly wild dance. The elders find meaning in his task, but Aaron sees his mission as to express the divine miraculous signs that are intended to legitimate calf. The escalation in this turbulent scene of the second what they see, as sense gives spirit sense. ideas of Moses in simple imagery. The people are seen the mission of Moses – two quite different themes in the act appears consequently part of the problem of the marching, to their hymn as the chosen people, following biblical account – Schoenberg regards them as identical. abstract ‘divine thought’ itself: Moses has led the people 6 Four naked virgins come before the idol, one of them a pillar of fire. They are joined by Aaron. As they march In his drafts he explains: ‘Aaron will speak to their eyes: into the imageless region of the wilderness. The the girl heard before, who now worships the Golden into the distance, Moses is left alone, praying to the God that is, Aaron will bring before their eyes things in such wilderness, however, is the nothingness of the fata Calf. They offer themselves in sacrifice, killed by the that is beyond imagination and expression; his idea was persuasive language that they believe they are seeing morgana and of phantasmagoria, setting loose, as it priests, their death cry heard, and their blood poured on itself an image. He laments the word that he lacks, miracles’. Schoenberg thus clearly breaks away from were, a series of illusory images. the altar. The scene becomes an orgy of destruction, sinking to the ground in despair. the retelling of the biblical story; rather he explains its The indissoluble double bond between Moses and some killing themselves, others dancing wildly. A In a possible text for a single-scene third act, images in Aaron’s words. Here he places himself in a Aaron, on which all Schoenberg’s attempts to cope with young man, naked, seizes a girl, stripping her clothes Schoenberg has Aaron as a prisoner before Moses. They specifically Jewish tradition of scriptural exegesis - an the third act foundered, reflects the question of how to from her, and carrying her to the altar. Other men follow argue about the importance of the idea over the image, aspect that is often overlooked through the well-known deal with the dilemma of communication: the hard line his example, before rushing away. The scene becomes Aaron again claiming the need to offer people images in self-identification of the composer with the figure of and necessity, the opportunistic approach and failure. quieter, with music and singing heard from the a language they can understand. Moses, however, is Moses. ‘Before their ears you shall do wonders …’ this The opera thus takes as its theme the central question background, praising the Golden Calf. The fires die victorious in their dispute. Aaron is released, but falls formulation hides also the key to Schoenberg’s that every interpretative art has to pose – thus also down, and all becomes quiet. down dead. frequently contested decision to assign Aaron’s completely centralto the theatrical art of opera. Rarely in eloquence to the sensual timbre of a lyrico-dramatic the realisation of an opera score has the question of the Scene 4: Moses descends from the Mountain Keith Anderson tenor voice and confine the ‘slowness of tongue’ of self awareness of the form itself and its function been so Moses to a spoken part: ‘song’ not as a bel canto style radically dealt with as here. 7 In the background a man on a mound nearby looks indulgence, but as a metaphor for lucid verbal for a moment at the Mount of Revelation. He rouses communication. Sergio Morabito ‘The meaning of the events is completely different English version by Keith Anderson 8.660158-59 85 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 6
Synopsis is possible to worship that which cannot be imagined; other living man sees and hears. Moses, who has stood CD 2 God punishes the sins of the father on his children and back while Aaron speaks, comes forward again so that CD 1 children’s children and rewards the faithful. Moses both are together; Aaron declares that the righteous shall Interlude urges him to purify his way of thinking and let see God. The girl, the young man and the other man, Act I righteousness be its own reward. Aaron wonders at who have come forward through the crowd, express 1 In front of the curtains stands a small chorus, God’s choice of a people so weary and oppressed; he their own inspired vision, while the priest questions, whispering, at first, the words ‘Where is Moses?’ He Scene 1: The Calling of Moses prays that they be released from bondage to Pharaoh. therefore, the reason for a murderer to fear. The people has been away from them for a long time, and they mock Aaron, wanting nothing to do with this invisible wonder, too, where is the Infinite One, his God. Moses 1 Six solo voices in the orchestra sing mysterious Scene 3: Moses and Aaron bring God’s Message to god, neither to be loved nor feared. has been away for forty days, and they fear he may not chords, suggesting the divine. The curtain rises. Moses the People return. prays to the one, eternal, all-present, invisible and 5 Moses is at the end of his strength, but Aaron angrily unimaginable God. The voice from the Burning Bush, 3 A young girl has seen Aaron, like a burning flame, approaches Moses and seizes the latter’s staff, which he Act II comprising four then six singers, echoed by six solo going to meet Moses; she tells how he threw himself hurls to the ground, at which it is transformed into a voices from the orchestra, bids him take his shoes off, for down on his knees and hid his face in the sand. A young serpent, to general consternation. Aaron seizes the snake Scene 1: Aaron and the Seventy Elders before the the place where he is standing is holy ground. Moses man tells how Aaron passed his house, like a cloud of and puts it back in the hand of Moses, restored to its Mount of Revelation prays to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not to light, quickly passing out of sight. Another man had original form as a staff. The people are amazed at the compel him into the rôle of prophet, but to be allowed to called to him, but had no answer; then he heard that God miracle, with Aaron perhaps the servant of Moses, 2 The elders and the priest complain of their wait of tend his sheep in peace. The voice tells him that he must had told him to meet his brother Moses in the himself the servant of his God. The girl, the young man forty days for the law, unimaginable from an set his people free. Moses is reluctant, but the voice tells wilderness. A priest recalls Moses, who murdered an and the other man see this as a sign that Moses will set unimaginable God. Their situation is worse than in him that united with God he must tear the people free overseer and ran away, bringing on them the anger of them free and are ready to serve him. The priest thinks Egypt, with growing lawlessness. Aaron tries to from Pharaoh. In despair Moses asks what proof he Pharaoh. A man suggests that Moses will bring a new the miracle will not persuade Pharaoh, but Aaron urges reassure them, but there are sounds of angry shouting. should give of his mission, as no one will believe him. god to protect them, but the priest declares that the old courage against the oppressor. He draws their eyes to Before their ears, he is told, he will do wonders; by his gods did that. The men think the newest God may help the hand of Moses, healthy and strong; placed by Moses Scene 2 rod they will hear him and wonder at his wisdom; from against Pharaoh; others disagree, calling for blood on his heart it turns leprous and the people draw back. the water of the Nile they will realise what their own sacrifice. The priest continues to maintain the worship Aaron tells them it is a sign of their own state of mind, 3 The crowd approach, calling out against Moses and blood commands. Moses pleads that he is slow of of the old gods, while the people divide into opposing but when Moses puts his hand in his bosom, he draws it his God, and calling for other gods. They press around tongue; he can think but not speak. He is told that he will groups. The girl believes that Moses will make them out again healed, the second miracle. Aaron and the elders, the latter calling to Aaron to help sense God’s voice in everything; Aaron shall be his free, and the people see Moses and Aaron approaching, them. Aaron addresses the people, telling them that mouth, his words coming from the lips of Aaron. His in a mood of increasing excitement. 6 Through these visible signs the people start to believe Moses may even have been destroyed on the height of people are chosen before all others, the people of the one and urge the struggle for their freedom, killing the the mountain by his God, an idea which is taken up by God, to know and worship him; he is promised that he Scene 4 overseers and Egyptian priests and making their way the people. The elders call on Aaron again to help them. will be led where he may be united with the eternal One, into the wilderness. The priest sees no way of living in He addresses the people again, promising to give them an example to his people. The voice tells him that Aaron 4 The people seek to know whether Moses brings a the wilderness, but Moses promises them purity of back their gods, to general jubilation. He tells them to is approaching and must be told the divine message. message from the new God, to give them hope, eager to thought. Aaron explains to the people how they are like bring gold; they shall have their old gods. make offerings. Moses announces that the one, eternal, children but will learn to be wiser; in the wilderness Scene 2: Moses meets Aaron in the Wilderness almighty, all-present, invisible, unimaginable wants God will provide for them, who changed the staff of Scene 3: The Golden Calf and the Altar offerings, not a part but everything; Aaron gives his own Moses and his leprous hand. He shows them a jar of 2 Aaron approaches, greeting his brother and aware of version of the divine mandate, telling the people to Nile water, transformed into blood, their own blood, that 4 Aaron declares that the image of the Golden Calf the task before him. While Moses knows that the people kneel down in worship. They wonder whom they should will nourish as the Nile does the land; now he promises bears witness that in whatever is, God lives. The gold, as have been chosen to know the invisible, unimaginable worship, as they see nothing; are they to love this God the people freedom in a new land of milk and honey, a principle, is unchangeable, apparently changeable, as God, Aaron expresses his own understanding in more or to fear him. Aaron tells them to shut their eyes and foretelling the fate of Pharaoh. They unite in a march, everything else; the shape he has given the gold is of tangible form, represented in imagery, asking whether it stop their ears; only thus can they see and hear what no the chosen people, praising a God who is stronger than less importance, and they should honour themselves in the gods of Egypt and eager for the promised land. the symbol. While he has been speaking, camels, asses, 8.660158-59 67 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 6
Synopsis is possible to worship that which cannot be imagined; other living man sees and hears. Moses, who has stood CD 2 God punishes the sins of the father on his children and back while Aaron speaks, comes forward again so that CD 1 children’s children and rewards the faithful. Moses both are together; Aaron declares that the righteous shall Interlude urges him to purify his way of thinking and let see God. The girl, the young man and the other man, Act I righteousness be its own reward. Aaron wonders at who have come forward through the crowd, express 1 In front of the curtains stands a small chorus, God’s choice of a people so weary and oppressed; he their own inspired vision, while the priest questions, whispering, at first, the words ‘Where is Moses?’ He Scene 1: The Calling of Moses prays that they be released from bondage to Pharaoh. therefore, the reason for a murderer to fear. The people has been away from them for a long time, and they mock Aaron, wanting nothing to do with this invisible wonder, too, where is the Infinite One, his God. Moses 1 Six solo voices in the orchestra sing mysterious Scene 3: Moses and Aaron bring God’s Message to god, neither to be loved nor feared. has been away for forty days, and they fear he may not chords, suggesting the divine. The curtain rises. Moses the People return. prays to the one, eternal, all-present, invisible and 5 Moses is at the end of his strength, but Aaron angrily unimaginable God. The voice from the Burning Bush, 3 A young girl has seen Aaron, like a burning flame, approaches Moses and seizes the latter’s staff, which he Act II comprising four then six singers, echoed by six solo going to meet Moses; she tells how he threw himself hurls to the ground, at which it is transformed into a voices from the orchestra, bids him take his shoes off, for down on his knees and hid his face in the sand. A young serpent, to general consternation. Aaron seizes the snake Scene 1: Aaron and the Seventy Elders before the the place where he is standing is holy ground. Moses man tells how Aaron passed his house, like a cloud of and puts it back in the hand of Moses, restored to its Mount of Revelation prays to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not to light, quickly passing out of sight. Another man had original form as a staff. The people are amazed at the compel him into the rôle of prophet, but to be allowed to called to him, but had no answer; then he heard that God miracle, with Aaron perhaps the servant of Moses, 2 The elders and the priest complain of their wait of tend his sheep in peace. The voice tells him that he must had told him to meet his brother Moses in the himself the servant of his God. The girl, the young man forty days for the law, unimaginable from an set his people free. Moses is reluctant, but the voice tells wilderness. A priest recalls Moses, who murdered an and the other man see this as a sign that Moses will set unimaginable God. Their situation is worse than in him that united with God he must tear the people free overseer and ran away, bringing on them the anger of them free and are ready to serve him. The priest thinks Egypt, with growing lawlessness. Aaron tries to from Pharaoh. In despair Moses asks what proof he Pharaoh. A man suggests that Moses will bring a new the miracle will not persuade Pharaoh, but Aaron urges reassure them, but there are sounds of angry shouting. should give of his mission, as no one will believe him. god to protect them, but the priest declares that the old courage against the oppressor. He draws their eyes to Before their ears, he is told, he will do wonders; by his gods did that. The men think the newest God may help the hand of Moses, healthy and strong; placed by Moses Scene 2 rod they will hear him and wonder at his wisdom; from against Pharaoh; others disagree, calling for blood on his heart it turns leprous and the people draw back. the water of the Nile they will realise what their own sacrifice. The priest continues to maintain the worship Aaron tells them it is a sign of their own state of mind, 3 The crowd approach, calling out against Moses and blood commands. Moses pleads that he is slow of of the old gods, while the people divide into opposing but when Moses puts his hand in his bosom, he draws it his God, and calling for other gods. They press around tongue; he can think but not speak. He is told that he will groups. The girl believes that Moses will make them out again healed, the second miracle. Aaron and the elders, the latter calling to Aaron to help sense God’s voice in everything; Aaron shall be his free, and the people see Moses and Aaron approaching, them. Aaron addresses the people, telling them that mouth, his words coming from the lips of Aaron. His in a mood of increasing excitement. 6 Through these visible signs the people start to believe Moses may even have been destroyed on the height of people are chosen before all others, the people of the one and urge the struggle for their freedom, killing the the mountain by his God, an idea which is taken up by God, to know and worship him; he is promised that he Scene 4 overseers and Egyptian priests and making their way the people. The elders call on Aaron again to help them. will be led where he may be united with the eternal One, into the wilderness. The priest sees no way of living in He addresses the people again, promising to give them an example to his people. The voice tells him that Aaron 4 The people seek to know whether Moses brings a the wilderness, but Moses promises them purity of back their gods, to general jubilation. He tells them to is approaching and must be told the divine message. message from the new God, to give them hope, eager to thought. Aaron explains to the people how they are like bring gold; they shall have their old gods. make offerings. Moses announces that the one, eternal, children but will learn to be wiser; in the wilderness Scene 2: Moses meets Aaron in the Wilderness almighty, all-present, invisible, unimaginable wants God will provide for them, who changed the staff of Scene 3: The Golden Calf and the Altar offerings, not a part but everything; Aaron gives his own Moses and his leprous hand. He shows them a jar of 2 Aaron approaches, greeting his brother and aware of version of the divine mandate, telling the people to Nile water, transformed into blood, their own blood, that 4 Aaron declares that the image of the Golden Calf the task before him. While Moses knows that the people kneel down in worship. They wonder whom they should will nourish as the Nile does the land; now he promises bears witness that in whatever is, God lives. The gold, as have been chosen to know the invisible, unimaginable worship, as they see nothing; are they to love this God the people freedom in a new land of milk and honey, a principle, is unchangeable, apparently changeable, as God, Aaron expresses his own understanding in more or to fear him. Aaron tells them to shut their eyes and foretelling the fate of Pharaoh. They unite in a march, everything else; the shape he has given the gold is of tangible form, represented in imagery, asking whether it stop their ears; only thus can they see and hear what no the chosen people, praising a God who is stronger than less importance, and they should honour themselves in the gods of Egypt and eager for the promised land. the symbol. While he has been speaking, camels, asses, 8.660158-59 67 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 8
horses, porters and carts are brought together, bearing others near him and calls out. The people gather way, as the people are subjected to a succession of from their biblical sense’, Fedele d’Amico has precisely offerings of gold, grain, wine, oil, animals and so on. together. Moses appears, bidding the image of the different opinions, so the collective dynamic of their stated, ‘for the Bible the resort of Aaron to the golden The offerings they bring are unloaded and heaped up. Golden Calf be gone. The idol disappears and the people innermost beliefs finds expression. calf is a falling back into idolatry, rather as heathen Preparations are made for sacrifice, with the sacrifical move back, leaving Moses and Aaron alone. The position that Aaron assumes as interpreter and polytheism is opposed the monotheism of Moses. For animals garlanded. The animals are slaughtered and communicator between Moses and the people is often Schoenberg’s Aaron the golden calf is simply a further pieces of meat thrown among the crowd, who fight over Scene 5: Moses and Aaron dismissed as that of a demagogue and agitator. In fact he symbol for the same God of Moses, a visible sign, them or eat them raw. Cooking vessels are brought in, is a mediator who shares the thinking of Moses and at indispensable for the people for them to come into set over newly kindled fires, and burnt offerings are 8 Moses asks Aaron what he has done. Aaron explains the same time knows of the people’s need for concrete contact in some way with his invisible being, and to be made. There is a dance of slaughtermen. A sick woman that he had provided the people with the miracles they images. The voice from the burning bush which able to perceive and love him also in imperfect and touches the Golden Calf and is cured. The meat is needed for their eyes and ears, obeying the voice within announces to Moses in the first scene of the opera limited form. […] For Moses, on the other hand, every stewed in the cooking vessels and roasted on the fire; him. He had thought Moses dead and as the people ‘Before their ears you shall do wonders’ defines the ‘sign’ is only degradation: and of course not only the there is wine and oil, and the sacrifice of animals expected justice and law from Moses, so Aaron had miracle of authentification - Moses’ staff that will turn miracles and the material promises but also the table of continues. Beggars cast off their rags, and some old men given this to them in concrete form, providing them with into a serpent, his hand marked by leprosy and healed the law, which he breaks for that reason as a trivial offer themselves in sacrifice. an image. The word of Moses had destroyed the image, again, the changing of water into blood - not as a form materialisation of the divine ethic.’ (Berlin, 1959). The but Aaron argues that the words of Moses needed image of magic, but aims at the miracle of verbal mediation, at tables of the law and the golden calf: in the radical 5 Horses are heard, and the tribal leaders and the and miracle in order to be understood. Moses tells him the, in Schoenberg’s terminology, ‘spoken wonder’ that interpretation of Schoenberg these – the analogy is with Ephraimite ride in. They dismount before the Golden that he bears the tables of God’s commandments, giving the ‘slowness of tongue’ of Moses cannot achieve. the compositional style - are in no way categorically Calf, and offer homage. A young man, feverish and them to Aaron; the idea has power over words and Aaron’s ability as a speaker is the capacity to find different: they are emanations of one and the same emaciated, tries to strike at the idolaters, but is seized by images. Aaron, though, pleads his own understanding of metaphors and interpret them. He is in a position to abstract series method, an aesthetic cypher for the the Ephraimite and killed by the tribal leaders. The the people and what they need; the tables of the law too reach the people with imagery and make it possible for inexpressible divine name. So this score, sublimated to people exchange gifts among themselves, then turning are an image, a part of the idea. Moses then smashes the them to understand themselves in a clear biblical the highest point, peaks in a sequence of unique to drunkenness, as wine is given out, and to an stone tables of the law and seeks from God release from picture. Aaron’s gift of verbal communication and the illustrative suggestions: in the dance around the golden increasingly wild dance. The elders find meaning in his task, but Aaron sees his mission as to express the divine miraculous signs that are intended to legitimate calf. The escalation in this turbulent scene of the second what they see, as sense gives spirit sense. ideas of Moses in simple imagery. The people are seen the mission of Moses – two quite different themes in the act appears consequently part of the problem of the marching, to their hymn as the chosen people, following biblical account – Schoenberg regards them as identical. abstract ‘divine thought’ itself: Moses has led the people 6 Four naked virgins come before the idol, one of them a pillar of fire. They are joined by Aaron. As they march In his drafts he explains: ‘Aaron will speak to their eyes: into the imageless region of the wilderness. The the girl heard before, who now worships the Golden into the distance, Moses is left alone, praying to the God that is, Aaron will bring before their eyes things in such wilderness, however, is the nothingness of the fata Calf. They offer themselves in sacrifice, killed by the that is beyond imagination and expression; his idea was persuasive language that they believe they are seeing morgana and of phantasmagoria, setting loose, as it priests, their death cry heard, and their blood poured on itself an image. He laments the word that he lacks, miracles’. Schoenberg thus clearly breaks away from were, a series of illusory images. the altar. The scene becomes an orgy of destruction, sinking to the ground in despair. the retelling of the biblical story; rather he explains its The indissoluble double bond between Moses and some killing themselves, others dancing wildly. A In a possible text for a single-scene third act, images in Aaron’s words. Here he places himself in a Aaron, on which all Schoenberg’s attempts to cope with young man, naked, seizes a girl, stripping her clothes Schoenberg has Aaron as a prisoner before Moses. They specifically Jewish tradition of scriptural exegesis - an the third act foundered, reflects the question of how to from her, and carrying her to the altar. Other men follow argue about the importance of the idea over the image, aspect that is often overlooked through the well-known deal with the dilemma of communication: the hard line his example, before rushing away. The scene becomes Aaron again claiming the need to offer people images in self-identification of the composer with the figure of and necessity, the opportunistic approach and failure. quieter, with music and singing heard from the a language they can understand. Moses, however, is Moses. ‘Before their ears you shall do wonders …’ this The opera thus takes as its theme the central question background, praising the Golden Calf. The fires die victorious in their dispute. Aaron is released, but falls formulation hides also the key to Schoenberg’s that every interpretative art has to pose – thus also down, and all becomes quiet. down dead. frequently contested decision to assign Aaron’s completely centralto the theatrical art of opera. Rarely in eloquence to the sensual timbre of a lyrico-dramatic the realisation of an opera score has the question of the Scene 4: Moses descends from the Mountain Keith Anderson tenor voice and confine the ‘slowness of tongue’ of self awareness of the form itself and its function been so Moses to a spoken part: ‘song’ not as a bel canto style radically dealt with as here. 7 In the background a man on a mound nearby looks indulgence, but as a metaphor for lucid verbal for a moment at the Mount of Revelation. He rouses communication. Sergio Morabito ‘The meaning of the events is completely different English version by Keith Anderson 8.660158-59 85 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 4
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Wolfgang Schöne Moses and Aaron Wolfgang Schöne studied at the Hanover and Hamburg Musikhochschule and began his career as a concert singer. “Before their ears you shall do wonders” directly programmatic representation of the antagonism At the Stuttgart State Opera, where he has been a member of the company since 1973, his rôles have included those that gives the narrative its structure: the freeing of God’s of Don Giovanni, Wolfram, Amfortas, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Ford in Falstaff, Eugene Onegin, Orest and Like many Jewish artists Arnold Schoenberg, in view of chosen people from its enslavement under the Egyptian Barak, the General in Henze’s Wir erreichen den Fluss, Pentheus in Die Bassariden, the Dutchman, Don Alfonso in the increasing antisemitism in Germany and Austria in idolaters. A comparison with other contemporary Così fan tutte, King Roger, Mamm’Agata in Donizetti’s Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, the Father in the 1920s and 1930s, found himself brought to a adaptations makes this clear. Paul Dessau’s oratorio Hänsel und Gretel, the Wanderer in Siegfried, Ludovico Nardi in Die Gezeichneten, Dr Schön/Jack the Ripper in clarification of his relationship with Judaism. In the Haggadah (1936) comes to mind, with a text by Max Lulu, a part that he has sung at many major opera-houses, including the Paris Opéra Bastille, as well as Jochanaan in summer of 1921 an anonymous letter had called upon Brod, and Kurt Weill’s Weg der Verheissung (text by Salome, and Lindorf, Coppelius, Dappertutto and Dr Miracle in Les contes d’Hoffmann. With a repertoire of more the then 46-year-old composer to give up his holiday Franz Werfel, 1934/35, first performed in 1937 in New than seventy rôles he has made guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera, Munich, Hamburg, the Berlin place at Mattsee, a threat that was to end in the York as The Eternal Road). These works show in the Deutsche Oper, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam and at the Salzburg Festival. In 1978 he was given the title systematic destruction of his position in musical life and image of Egyptian slavery a comparison with the Kammersänger. his expulsion into American exile. This break in his life unprecedented level of oppression and persecution of marks also the beginning of his work on the theme of the Jews in Hitler’s Germany. In remembering the Moses, discernible from 1922. He himself in 1933 biblical exodus into the promised land they seek hope Chris Merritt returned to the faith of Moses, which he had left in 1898 for the present. Schoenberg on the other hand takes no in favour of Lutheranism. account of the ‘drama’ of the exodus and with it the Chris Merritt was born in Oklahoma City and completed his education at the Oklahoma City University, which The opera Moses and Aaron, written in these years of relationship of the Jews to their oppressors. These bestowed on him an honorary doctorate. He has made guest appearances at the leading opera houses in the world, in upheaval between 1928 and 1932, remained unfinished: themes, as well as their political implications, New York, London, Paris, Milan, Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam, Venice, Rome, Barcelona and Buenos of the three planned acts (I. Calling, II. The Golden Calf, Schoenberg dealt with separately in his play Der Aires. Among his most important rôles have been Idomeneo, Tito, Ferrando, Tamino and the great tenor rôles of III. Aaron’s Death) the first two were completed, of the biblische Weg (The Biblical Way) (1922-27). In the Verdi, Puccini, Rossini and Offenbach. He has appeared in Moses und Aron, Oberon, Busoni’s Doktor Faustus and third there exist several unfortunately unfinished attempts opera Schoenberg’s objective is to represent the Messiaen’s St François d’Assise at the Salzburg Festival. He sang in the world première of Henze’s Venus und at a text by Schoenberg himself, who here, as already in personality clashes between the individual characters of Adonis in Munich, in Rusalka at the New York Metropolitan Opera and appeared as Herod in Genoa, Bologna and his ‘drama with music’ Die glückliche Hand (The Moses, Aaron and the people, and, because of the at The Netherlands Opera; he sang Wozzeck and in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Katya Kabanová at Fortunate Hand) and the oratorio Die Jakobsleiter religio-philosophical positioning of the opera, there are the Hamburg State Opera. Other appearances include Henze’s Boulevard Solitude at Covent Garden and (Jacob’s Ladder), was his own librettist. Nevertheless it no direct references to the historical present. Glyndebourne, and Ariadne auf Naxos in Dresden. In Stuttgart he sang the rôle of the Fugitive in Intolleranza 1960. must be seen as the composer’s ‘fragmentary The eponymous heroes of this drama of ideas are masterpiece’. This assessment of the opera is not only the dissimilar brothers, Moses and Aaron. Their dispute because it is his most comprehensive score, but also articulates the necessary and, at the same time, Irena Bespalovaite because it represents the climax of his association with impossible expression of the idea of the ‘one, eternal the dodecaphonic method of composition, described by and unknowable God’, to whom no image can do Irena Bespalovaite is Lithuanian by birth and studied at the Vilnius Music Academy and at the Salzburg Mozarteum Schoenberg himself as ‘a method of composition with justice. From this springs Moses’ tragedy: on the one with Lilian Sukis and Breda Zakotnik. She completed her diploma at the Mozarteum in 2001 and was awarded the twelve notes related only to each other’. Schoenberg hand is his conviction of the absolute and unknowable Lilli Lehmann Medal. Her first engagements in 1996 brought appearances as Susanna and as Despina at the Vilnius himself declared with some pride: ‘I could even base a nature of God, and, on the other, lies his own inability to Music Academy. In 1997/98 she appeared in the International Summer Music Academy, singing Ännchen at the whole opera, Moses and Aaron, on a single tone-row’ fulfil his mission to communicate what, by its very Mozarteum, Pamina, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. From 1998 to 2001 she (Composition with Twelve Notes). nature, is virtually an impossible task. The chorus of the appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival under Claudio Abbado and René Jacobs. In 1999 she sang the rôle The principle of integral musical construction, the ‘Children of Israel’, as the third principal character in of the First Cretan Woman in Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival and made guest appearances in Zurich, Aachen and fact that all the musical forms of the opera are generated the opera, represents the attitude of the masses. Bonn, where she sang Tebaldo, Gretel and the Sandman and the Dew Fairy. She has been a member of the Stuttgart from one and the same basic tone-row, demanded a very Individual figures that, as a solo quartet, from time to State Opera company since the 2001/02 season, singing Adele in Die Fledermaus, Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, specific method of dramatic composition. It draws its time come forward from the crowd, do not appear as Ginevra Scotti in Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten and Tebaldo in Don Carlo. She has also appeared as La Musica / figures and motifs from the biblical Book of Exodus, the individuals, but express, together with other smaller Proserpina in L’Orfeo and as Esmeralda in The Bartered Bride, as well as Serpetta in La finta giardiniera. foundation myth of the Jewish people, yet avoids a solo parts, the different moods of the people. In this 8.660158-59 4 9 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 10
Bernhard Schneider CD 1 52:02 Act II
Bernhard Schneider has been a member of the Stuttgart State Opera since 1998. He studied at the Cologne Act I 2 Scene 1: Aron und die siebzig Ältesten vor dem Musikhochschule with Hans Sotin and during his training worked with the German Opera am Rhein, followed by Berg der Offenbarung 1 Scene 1: Moses Berufung (The Calling of Moses) (Aaron and the Seventy Elders before the engagements in Krefeld-Mönchengladbach and in Gelsenkirchen-Wuppertal. He made his début at Bayreuth in 1996, „Einziger, ewiger, allgegenwärtiger, unsichtbarer singing Vogelgesang in Die Meistersinger, the Young Sailor in Tristan und Isolde, First Nobleman in Lohengrin and und unverstellbarer Gott!“ Mount of Revelation) 3:34 a Squire in Parsifal. In Bremen he appeared as Ernesto in Don Pasquale and David in Die Meistersinger. In Stuttgart (Only, eternal, all-present, invisible and „Vierzig Tage! Vierzig Tage liegen wir he has sung Andres in Wozzeck, Truffaldino in The Love for Three Oranges, Kilian in Der Freischütz, Lucano / unimaginable God!) 10:05 nun schon hier!“ Famigliare in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Czekalinski in The Queen of Spades, Iro in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria, (Moses) (Forty Days! Forty days we are still waiting here!) Froh in Das Rheingold, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Don Velasco in Masaniello furioso as well as Oronte in Alcina, 2 Scene 2: Moses begegnet Aron in der Wüste (Seventy Elders, Priest, Aaron) the First Jew in Salome, the Algerian in Intolleranza 1960 and Wenzel in The Bartered Bride. (Moses meets Aaron in the Wilderness) 3 Scene 2: „Wo ist Moses? Daß wir ihn zerreißen!“ „Du Sohn meiner Väter … Du Sohn meines Vaters, (Where is Moses? That we may tear him in Bruder des Geistes“ pieces!) 8:35 Michael Ebbecke (Son of my fathers … Son of my father, brother in spirit) 7:55 (Chorus, Seventy Elders, Aaron) (Aaron, Moses) 4 Scene 3: Das goldene Kalb und der Altar Michael Ebbecke is a Kammersänger in the Stuttgart State Opera and has sung all the major baritone rôles, 3 Scene 3: Moses und Aron verkünden dem Volk (The Golden Calf and the Altar) including Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva, Figaro, Germont, Ulisse, Wolfram, the Herald in Lohengrin and the rôle die Botschaft Gottes „Diese Bild bezeugt daß in allem was ist, of Verdi in Hans Neuenfels’s première of Adriana Hölszky’s opera Giuseppe e Sylvia. Guest engagements have (Moses and Aaron announce to the People God’s ein Gott lebt!“ taken him to Buenos Aires, Geneva, Lisbon, Prague, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Vienna and Zurich. Recent rôles in Message) (This image is witness that in all that is, Stuttgart include Ludovico Nardi in Die Gezeichneten, Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus, Don Fernando in Fidelio and „Ich hab ihn gesehn, als eine feurige Flamme“ God lives!) 10:26 Jochanaan in Salome. (I saw him as a burning flame) 6:25 (Aaron, Invalid Woman, Beggars, Old Men, (Young Girl, Young Man, Another Man, Priest, Chorus) Seventy Elders) Karl-Friedrich Dürr 4 Scene 4: „Bringt ihr Erhörung, Botschaft des 5 „Frei unter eigenen Herren“ neuen Gottes?“ (Free, under their own masters) 10:12 (Ephraimite, Tribal Leaders, Youth, Seventy Elders) Karl-Friedrich Dürr was born in Stuttgart. During his period at university, where he was awarded a doctorate and (Do you brings news, a message from the new God?) 6:55 6 taught for a short time in schools, he studied singing privately with Günter Reich. He made his début in 1980 in the „Du goldener Gott, wie Lust durchströmt (Chorus, Moses, Aaron, Priest, Girl, mich dein Glanz“ title-rôle of Rihm’s Jakob Lenz in Stuttgart and has sung leading Mozart rôles, including Figaro in the Zadek Young Man, Man) staging, Leporello, Bartolo in the new staging of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, as well as (You golden god, as pleasure your glow 5 „Allmächtiger, meine Kraft ist zu Ende“ streams through me) 9:11 Klingsor, Biterolf and Kothner. He sang Eisenhardt in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, the Animal-Tamer / Athlete in (Almighty, my strength is at an end) 10:55 Lulu, Joe in Mahagonny, the Police Chief in Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, the Cook in The Love for Three (Moses, Aaron, Chorus, Young Girl, (Girl, Naked Virgins, Seventy Elders, Oranges, Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Third Citizen / Third Senator in Die Gezeichneten, the Maestro in Young Man, Man, Priest) Naked Youth, Chorus) Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali, Venanzio in I pazzi per progetto, Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffmann, the 6 „Alles für die Freiheit!“ 7 Scene 4: Moses steigt vom Berg herab Sacristan in Tosca and First Soldier in Salome. He made a guest appearance as Leporello at the Dresden (All for freedom!) 9:47 (Moses descends from the Mountain) Semperoper, as Herr von Faninal in Dresden, Bonn and Düsseldorf, as Eisenhardt at the Paris Bastille Opéra, with (Man, Chorus, Priest, Moses, Aaron) „Vergeh, du Abbild des Unvermögens, appearances also in Trieste and New York. In 1998 he was given the title of Kammersänger. das Grenzenlose in ein Bild zu fassen!“ CD 2 60:47 (Away, you image of impotence, to hold the limitless in an image!) 1:33 1 Zwischenspiel (Interlude) „Wo ist Moses? … Wo ist der Führer? … (Moses, Chorus) Lange schon hat ihn keiner gesehn!“ 8 Scene 5: Moses und Aron (Moses and Aaron) (Where is Moses? … Where is the leader? … „Aron, was hast du getan? … Nicht Neues!“ No one has seen him for a long time!) 2:43 (Aaron, what have you done? … Nothing new!) 14:33 (Chorus) (Moses, Aaron, Chorus) 8.660158-59 10 3 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 2
Arnold Stuttgart State Opera Chorus
SCHOENBERG The Stuttgart State Opera Chorus traces its history back to 1552 as a court musical establishment. It developed as (1874-1951) the State Opera Chorus under the leadership of its long-standing choral director Ulrich Eistert (1972-2001) and Michael Alber (since 2001), with the deputy chorus-master Johannes Knecht. It has acquired a critical and public Moses und Aron reputation for its homogenous sound and its dramatic presence, with singers of soloistic quality and experience. It Text by the Composer was for the sixth time named Opera Chorus of the Year by the review Opernwelt, among other things for its Acts I and II performances in Moses und Aron, Lachenmann’s Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Götterdämmerung, and Verdi’s Otello. With a wide-ranging repertoire the chorus also appears in symphony and Moses ...... Wolfgang Schöne chamber concerts. Aaron ...... Chris Merritt Young Girl ...... Irena Bespalovaite Young Man ...... Bernhard Schneider Michael Alber Another Man / Ephraimite ...... Michael Ebbecke Born in Tuttlingen, Michael Alber studied school music, jazz, and orchestral and choral conducting in Stuttgart, Priest ...... Karl-Friedrich Dürr Trossingen and in Vienna with Otmat Suitner. From 1994 to 2001 he was deputy chorus-master and since the First Elder ...... Ulrich Frisch 2001/02 season has been director of the Stuttgart State Opera Chorus, preparing some twenty new productions, Second Elder ...... Sa‰a Vrabac including King Arthur, Rienzi, Die Gezeichneten, Der Rosenkavalier, Giuseppe e Sylvia, Das Mädchen mit den Third Elder ...... Stephan Storck Schwefelhölzern, Norma, La Bohème and Don Carlo. He has superintended a number of revivals and has conducted the State Opera Chorus in chamber concerts, including a première by Stephan Storck. He is associated also with Invalid Woman ...... Emma Curtis other choruses, including the SWR Vocal Ensemble. Four Naked Virgins Irena Bespalovaite · Helga Rós Indridadóttir · Naomi Ishizu · Emma Curtis Polish Radio Choir, Kraków A Naked Youth ...... Alois Riedel The Polish Radio Choir was founded by Jerzy Gert in 1947 and until 1993 was an integral part of the Orchestra and Six Solo Voices Choir of Polish Radio and Television. Since January 1995 the ensemble has existed independently as the Polish Barbara Kosviner · Ilona Wirgler · Ingrid Zielosko · Siegfried Laukner Radio Choir in Kraków with Wlodzimierz Siedlik appointed as its director and artistic manager. The Polish Radio Peter Schaufelberger · Sa‰a Vrabac Choir has performed and recorded innumerable vocal and instrumental compositions under the baton of many distinguished Polish and foreign conductors, among them Stanisl/aw Wisl/ocki, Jan Krenz, Jerzy Semkow, Giuseppe Stuttgart State Orchestra Sinopoli, Yuri Ahronovitch, and Bruno Bartoletti, as well as having Nadia Boulanger as a guest. The choir has a wide range of repertoire of unaccompanied and accompanied choral music from various periods, and has recorded Stuttgart State Opera Chorus • Stuttgart State Opera Children’s Chorus many works for the archive of the Polish Radio and CDs for Polish and foreign companies. The choir has (Chorus-master: Michael Alber) collaborated in staged performances of Schoenberg’s opera Moses und Aron in various theatres, including Polish Radio Choir, Kraków Darmstadt, Palermo, Stuttgart, and Hamburg. (Chorus-master: Marek Kluza) Roland Kluttig A performance by the Stuttgart State Opera Stage direction: Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito Production designer: Anna Viebrock • Artistic director: Klaus Zehelein 8.660158-59 211 8.660158-59 660158-59 bk Schoenberg US 6/13/06 11:02 AM Page 12
Stuttgart Staatsorchester 2 CDs The Württemberg Stuttgart State Orchestra has a history of over four hundred years, established in 1589 as the SCHOENBERG Court Orchestra of Württemberg. Over the generations there have been collaborations with musicians of distinction, among them Leonhard Lechner, the Frobergers, Niccolò Jommelli, Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, Konradin Kreutzer, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Carl Maria von Weber. Berlioz praised the orchestra, when he appeared with it as conductor, and in the 1880s Stuttgart was one of the first to stage the complete Ring cycle, conducted by the then Moses und Aron General Music Director Herman Zumpe, who had assisted Wagner at the first Bayreuth Festival. The tradition of first performances has included the première of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 1912, conducted by the composer, in Schöne • Merritt • Bespalovaite • Schneider • Ebbecke • Dürr 1921 of a one-acter by Hindemith, and in recent times works by Orff, Penderecki, Glass, Zender, Riehm and Hölszky. In the twentieth century there was collaboration with Fritz Busch, Carl Leonhardt, Franz Konwitschny, Hans Swarowsky and Herbert Albert, and in particular with Max von Schillings and Ferdinand Leitner, and in more Stuttgart State Opera Chorus • Polish Radio Choir, Kraków recent years with conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, Vaclav Neumann, Silvio Varviso, Janos Kulka, Dennis Russell Davies, Garcia Navarro und Gabriele Ferro as Music Directors and Conductor, and as guests, Georg Solti, Carlo Stuttgart State Opera Children’s Chorus Maria Giulini and Riccardo Chailly. Lothar Zagrosek took over the helm of the orchestra in 1997, and has been responsible for a number of important and innovative performances. In 2002 the orchestra was named Orchestra of Stuttgart State Orchestra • Roland Kluttig the Year by Opernwelt. The work of the orchestra has included recordings and DVDs, in addition to symphony concerts and chamber music performed by members of the orchestra.
Roland Kluttig
Born in Radeberg in 1968, Roland Kluttig studied at the Dresden Musikhochschule and made his début as a conductor with Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Dresden Festival. He held an award from the German Music Council and the Schloss Solitude Academy and worked with the conductors Peter Eötvös, Sylvain Cambreling and John Eliot Gardiner. From 1993 to 1999 he directed the Berlin New Music Chamber Ensemble. From 2000 to 2004 he was Kapellmeister and Musical Assistant to Lothar Zagrosek at the Stuttgart State Opera, where he conducted the revival of Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore, Lachenmann’s Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern, Don Carlo, Les contes d’Hoffmann, La finta giardiniera and Don Giovanni. In 2004 he was entrusted with the musical direction of Morton Feldman’s Neither in Stuttgart and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Innsbruck. He started 2005 with the première of Richard Ayre’s opera The cricket recovers at the Aldeburgh Festival. He makes regular guest appearances with the SWR Orchestras in Stuttgart and Baden-Baden/Freiburg, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the German Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as ASKO Amsterdam and the Vienna Klangforum. He has carried out engagements at the Berlin Festival, Munich Biennale, the Donaueschinger Musiktage and the Holland Festival and since his American début in 2004 has been principal conductor of the Crested Butte Music Festival.
8.660158-59 12 CMYK NAXOS NAXOS In 1921 Arnold Schoenberg was forced to leave his holiday home in Austria because of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe. This experience caused him to re-evaluate his Jewish identity, and was eventually to lead to the composition of his “fragmentary masterpiece” Moses und Aron. The opera draws its figures and motifs from the Book of Exodus, and the conflict between the beliefs of the two central characters is reflected in the music. Schoenberg died six years before its première, but he DDD regarded Moses und Aron as his most important work. 8.660158-59 Arnold Playing Time SCHOENBERG: SCHOENBERG SCHOENBERG: (1874-1951) 1:52:49 Moses und Aron Moses ...... Wolfgang Schöne Aaron ...... Chris Merritt Young Girl ...... Irena Bespalovaite Young Man ...... Bernhard Schneider Another Man / Ephraimite ...... Michael Ebbecke Priest ...... Karl-Friedrich Dürr Moses und Aron First Elder ...... Ulrich Frisch Moses und Aron Second Elder ...... Sa‰a Vrabac Third Elder ...... Stephan Storck Invalid Woman ...... Emma Curtis www.naxos.com Made in Canada Booklet notes and synopsis in English A Naked Youth ...... Alois Riedel &
Stuttgart State Orchestra • Stuttgart State Opera Chorus 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. Polish Radio Choir, Kraków • Stuttgart State Opera Children’s Chorus Roland Kluttig CD 1 52:02 CD 2 60:47 1-6 Act I 52:02 1 Interlude 2:43 2-8 Act II 58:04 A full track and cast list can be found on pages 2 and 3 of the booklet 8.660158-59 Recorded live on 8th, 10th, 13th and 20th December, 2003, at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Germany 8.660158-59 A co-production with SWR • Producer: Reinhard Ermen • Recording supervisor: Thomas Angelkorte Recording engineers: Peter Braun, Burkhard Pitzer-Landeck and Irmgard Bauer Booklet Notes: Sergio Morabito and Keith Anderson Cover photograph: Michael Ebbecke as Ephraimite © A.T. Schaefer