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Home , Antigonae, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana (Orff), Catulli Carmina, Der Mond, Die Kluge

BROOKLYN ACADeMY OF MUSIC The Little Society THOMAS SCHERMAN, Music Director YLADO HABUNEK, Stage Director

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION SERIES-SEASON 1967-68 Final Concert-Series C-Sunday Afternoon, Apri/21, 1968, at 2:30 liERDERT BARRETT, Manager THOMAS SCHERMAN, Conductor ANTlGONAE American Premiere A by Friedrich Holderlin Based on ...... lnge Borkh Kreon ...... Carlos Alexander Ismenc ...... Elizabeth Mannion A Guard ...... Leo Gocke Haemon ...... William Lewis ...... Norman Paige A Messenger ...... 1. B. Davis

Eurydice . 0 • 0 0 ••••••••• • ••••• 0 •• 0 • 0 0 • 0 •• 0 • Elizabeth Mannion

Leader of the Chorus .. 0 ••• 0 •••••••• 0 •••••••••• John Ostendorf Theben Elders Choral Director-Jonathan Dudley Time: Ancient Greece Place: Thebes ACT 1 Scene 1 - Antigonac ACT HI-Chorus and Krcon lsmene Scene 1-Kreon Scene 2 - Kreon Haemon Chorus horus Scene 3 - Kreon Scene 2- Antigonac A Guard Chorus Chorus Scene 3 - Kreon ACT 11 - Chorus Antigonae Scene 1 - Chorus Chorus A Guard ACT IV Antigonae Scene 1 - Antigonac * Kreon Chorus Scene 2 - Tiresias Kreon Scene 3 - Chorus Kreon ACT Y-Chorus Scene 1 - A Messenger Chorus Eurydice Scene 2- Chorus Kreon ':'There will be an intermission following Scene I, ACT IV Baldwin By arrangement with Associated Mu!,ic Publi hers, Inc., New York, agent for B. Schott's Soehne, Mainz.

ANTIGONAE An Introduction by WOLFGANG SCHADEWALDT

Carl Orff's Antigonae, first performed at the in August 1949, showed a distinctly new direction in the then 54-year-old master's output: a turn to tragedy. The tragic element had indeed occupied Orff in his arrangements of Monteverdi , which .. go back to the year 1925. After the scenic in 1937 and the two fairy-tale operas ( 1939) and (1943), its note was perceptible in the : and in the "Bavarian folk-tale'' Die Bemauerin of 1947 he had already found, in the framework of the mediaeval mystery, a strong dramatic form which represented a kind of first step towards Antigonae. But this tragic element first grew into a peculiarly all-embracing creative form when Orff adopted Sophocles' Antigonae, in Holderlin's German version, for a musical interpretation of an original Greek tragedy, creating with it at the same time a new idiom of composition which completely left behind the forms and methods of classic-romantic from which he had already been in­ creasingly turning in his earlier stage works. The innovation was so radical that it may be regarded. with no small justice, as a truly epoch-making turning-point in the history of the modern musical theatre. And yet it was in no sense merely a determination to evoke something new at any price. With his Antigonae Orff was striving with new means, and in his own way, for that regeneration of tragedy which is one of the oldest, yet ever vital, concerns of musical history in modern Europe: one thinks of the Renaissance in Italy, which created opera from this particular ideal, of Gluck's new serious treatment of tragic myths within the means offered by the Baroque theatre, of the new immediacy of Richard Wagner's romantically-conceived recourse to Greek-born music-drama and sacred festival play. For Orff, the original of and Sophocles, with their characters and plots, their aforedoomed acts of fate, their gods, are not outdated. For him, Greek tragedy represents a basic man-god relationship which still (or again) directly concerns us too in our own day, when the very essence of this tragedy succeeds once again in inspiring creative activities. And so Orff, in his musical interpretation of Antigonae, follows most exactly the unchanged, unabbreviated and completely untouched text of Sophocles in Holderlin's version. There are no archaisms or period touches to make it seem as histori­ cally "correct'' as possible. In this adherence to the original text of the tragedy may be seen a characteristic of our century, which in other spheres also of our thought seeks a new directness of understanding of historical events (which is not just "the past"), and once again ferments our own ideas with Greek forms and thoughts, the Greek view of humanity and the Greek belief in the gods. Thus Sophocles' words in his Antigonae are for Orff not merely a text round which he arbitrarily spins music of his own, or with which he seeks to make an emotional or im­ pressive effect. Properly to understand Orff's A ntigonae all thoughts of any operatic "setting to music" of Sophocles must be immediately put aside. Sophocles' words, as rendered by Holderlin, are for Orff the "authentic" words, and as such inexorably binding for the , who regards himself throughout as their interpreter. It follows from this that the words of the tragic poet are not merely to be spoken: to experience anew the basic meaning of "deeds" and "happenings", they must be apprehended creatively and allowed to unfold afresh in our world. This will not be fully achieved so long as the words of the tragedy are merely spoken or declaimed on our stages. It will only be attained again in that full existence in which tragic Man is not restricted to thinking or feeling, nor to a modern individuality, but is, as the Greeks put it, that body (soma) whose basic feeling, thought and will stem from the unbroken entity of his being, and, also, who does not remain isolated by himself in this entity but exists in a living, flexible harmony with the Universe and with the Daemon. In order to realise the tragedy afresh, the tragic text must become song again and must enter into that original emotional and spiritual unity of sound, gesture, staging and mimed action which Greek tragedy was and is. Everything-not only the meios-is the "music" here, the mousike in the original Greek sense of the word, which, as is known, first broke up into a divided trinity of speech, music and dance, through which also tragedy, as it was later played, became reduced to spoken drama, but which recently has been further diminished by shedding the remainder of that "music'· (namely verse and rhythm) and leaving only prose speech. Certainly music now demanded a new type of singing as the language of that truly • fundamental existence which also embraced the spiritual. The invention of thoughts and feelings, and the illumination of "inner depths"' by means of musical characterisation, psychology and even depth-psychology, would not accord with this. What was needed was a language of enthusiasm, of that ecstatic awareness of divinity in which character and spirit in mankind are one, and actively express themselves in words with the force of an inescapable compulsion through strong outside pressures. It would be no less in­ appropriate to put to music some purely foreground drama. A rhythmic musical structure had to be built up with complete intellectual mastery which would bring out to the full the drnmatic quality, but in which, above all, the main course of the underlying divine events would be dominant.

This new language, this new type of song draws from Orff a body of sound of a primary nuture which allows to the strings only a group of double-basses, and which apart from this, with its large array of percussion (including six pianos sounded in different ways), its harps, woodwinds and muted , is as far removed from the symphonic orchestra as tragedy understood as broad elemental action is removed from its orthodox romantic meaning. The composition follows the compulsive text of the action practically without pause, yet is arranged according to the developed world of form of ancient tragedy, with its alternating lines of dialogue (stichomythia), messengers' speeches, dialogues of con­ flict, monodies, choruses. Here the dialogue-instead of the recitative-is carried over long stretches on the same held intoning-note to points which have the stress-word, which is reinforced with heavy accents. The chief weight rests on the big speeches (taking the place of arias), which with their unprecedented rhythmic displacements, interval leaps, coloratura melismata, over the even tread of long ostinati, yet always following the natural rise and fall of speech, are evocatively impressed on the hearer's soul through meaningful musical gestures expressing the essence of the divinely-inspired, dream-filled Antigonae, of the daemon-possessed Kreon and of the ecstatic seer Tiresias. The strongly emotional is everywhere here comprehended from its basic source, the "pathetic", namely the ecstatic stirring of the soul which is an emotion of awe in the face of divine power. The Antigonae of Carl Orff is no more merely that "most sisterly of creatures" (Goethe) who goes to her death in fulfilling the humanitarian loving duty of burying her dead brother. Her struggle against the ruler Kreon is not just the conflict of principles between the demands of the State and family affection (Hegel) . And the more one honours her example of noble strength of purpose, which in her resistance to State despotism and fanatical law brings death upon her and thereby creates a newer, purer order, so much more will the real action of the tragedy extend beyond that drama of moral, legal and political conflict.

With good reason Orff adheres to Holderlin, who in his poetic version as well as in his explanatory "Observations" understood the tragedy as the encounter between god and man. Tragic Man, innocently guilty, in pursuit of a noble task, quite oversteps the bounds in his impulse towards God, and is then struck by the divine recoil-a ''rebel", a "holy heretic" against the all too rigorously revered God. He thus courts his downfall, yet through this very downfall is concerned that a new rational order of all things should arise from it and that "God should again become mani fest".

LIONEL SALTER: THE BACKGROUND AND THE STORY On the death of , King of Thebes, it was agreed that his two sons and -born of Oedipus' incestuous union with his mother Jocasta-should share his throne, each to reign in turn for a year at a time. The brothers quarrelled, however, and at the end of the first year Eteocles refused to cede the power. Polynices fled to Argos, and with the aid of its king organised an army under seven leaders (the "Seven Against Thebes" ) with which, despite prophetic warnings of disaster, he attacked his native city. All Polynices' allies fell in the fighting-one before each gate of the town ; Polynices him­ self and his brother Eteocles slew each other in single combat. Jocasta's brother Kreon then took over the throne. He ordered a state burial for Eteocles, but as a terrible lesson to all rebels commanded that the corpse of Polynices be left to rot, unburied and a prey to dogs and vultures. No one was to go into mourning for him, and anyone attempting to give him burial was himself to be put to death. As an extra precaution, the body was guarded night and day. It is at this point that Holderlin's tragedy (based on Sophocles) begins. ACT I: Despite Kreon's savage decrees, Oedipus' daughter Antigonae is determined to accord her brother the rites of burial. She attempts to enlist the help of her sister Ismene, but the latter is fearful of the penalties threatened and does her best to dissuade Antigonae, who however refuses to be shaken from her resolve. Kreon repeats his edict to the elders of Thebes, but is interrupted by a guard, who shakingly brings him the news that someone has contrived to scatter some earth on the body. The furious Kreon threatens dire punishment, and sweeps out. ACT II: The chorus (which throughout the work comments on the action ) is left specu­ lating. Antigonae meanwhile has returned to her brother's corpse, throwing earth on it with her bare hands, and giving voice to her lamentations; whereupon she is seized by the guards and dragged before the king. She freely confesses that she knows the edict and is aware of the penalty, but that she has a sacred duty to her brother. Ismene, ashamed of her former cowardice, accuses herself of complicity in the deed, and Kreon orders both girls to be led away as prisoners. ACT III: The king's son H aemon, to whom Antigonae is betrothed, pleads for mercy for her: the whole city, he declares, is plunged in grief. When Kreon remains implacable, and in a rage commands that both sisters be put to death before them all, Haemon de­ clares that he will kill himself. To prevent him, Kreon alters the sentence: Ismene shall be freed, Antigonae shall be immured in a rocky cave with the barest minimum of food, there to do penance and pray the gods of for release in death. The chorus appeals to the spirit of love to soften Antigonae's headstrong obstinacy; but she feels bound to atone with her life for the curse which lies upon her family from her father's parricide and incestuous marriage. Kreon orders her to be taken away. ACT IV: Antigonae bids farewell to the world, declaring that she could not do other than attempt to pay her last respects to her dead brother. The chorus muses that destiny is inescapable. The blind soothsayer Tiresias is led in by a boy and foretells utter disaster for Kreon through his ruthlessness. At first the king will not heed him; but when the chorus insists that Tiresias has always been correct in his prophecies, he asks for advice and is counselled to release Antigonae and give Polynices honourable burial. Kreon promises that he per­ sonally will sec this is done. ACT V: The chorus offers praises to the god of Thebes; but it is already too late to halt inexorable fate. A messenger arrives with the news that Haemon is dead. 's queen, Eurydice, orders him to tell his story. He relates that Kreon, having prepared a grave for Polynices, had drawn near to Antigonae's rocky prison, from which were heard lam­ entations. There he had found a terrible sight: Antigonae had hanged herself with her sash, and Haemon was clinging to her body, bewailing his lost bride and his father's savagery. On Kreon calling his son, Haemon had drawn his sword on him: Kreon had side-stepped, and Haemon had thrust his sword into his own side, kissed Antigonae's arm, and died. Without a word, Eurydice goes out; the messenger and the chorus confer in whispers as to what she may do. Kreon comes back carrying his son's corpse in his arms and uttering cries of wild grief; but further tragedy awaits him, for the messenger returns with the news that Eurydice has taken her own life. Kreon's despair is complete: he has lost all he cherished, and longs for death himself. There is to be no easy release for him, however: he must bear his doom. Only in wisdom, mutter the chorus, can there be peace of mind, and man must not profane the teachings of the gods.

THOMAS SCHERMAN Thomas Scherman, founder and music director of the Little Orchestra Society, has been hailed repeatedly for his important contributions to the musical life of New York. His uncommon ingenuity in programming has given the concert audiences of New York invaluable musical opportunities to hear masterpieces never before presented in New York. During the past twenty years, since the Little Orchestra was formed in 1947, Mr. Scherman has presented over one hundred neglected works of great musical value. These have included orchestral compositions, operas in concert form and oratorios. Of par­ ticular interest were the presentation of several operas with Die Frau Ohne Schallen leading in importance, and Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ which has become an annual pre-Christmas musical offering. The Young People's Concerts, founded and conducted by Mr. Scherman, received the George Foster Peabody Award in 1957. Mr. Scherman has appeared as guest conductor with many leading in the and Europe and, under the auspices of the President's Special International Program for Cultural Presentations, conducted the Little Orchestra Society in an eight-week tour of the Far East. This past month he was decorated by both the French and Italian govern­ ments for his devotion to and performances of the music of their countries.

INGE BORKH Dramatic Inge Borkh is a native of , Germany and she first came to the attention of American audiences by way of her performances with the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Company. She made her debut in 1958. The role was -one of her most striking interpretations. Her was also acclaimed at the Metropolitan. This characterization immediately placed her in the front ranks of the true hoch dramatische stars. Miss Borkh has appeared with all the major opera companies of the world and with conductors including Reiner, Ormandy, Krips and Bernstein. She is a great favorite in and where her great range and versatility allow her to perform all the major Strauss roles as well as Lady , Senta, the "Fidelia" Leonore and Alcestis. Television audiences will remember her Jocasta in Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex" which she performed under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. She is the Antigonae on the highly acclaimed recording of tonight's American premiere performance of Carl Orff's opera. This is Miss Borkh's debut with The Little Orchestra Society.

CARLOS ALEXANDER Tonight's Kreon was born in Utica, New York and studied both in and New York with the distinguished Friedrich Schorr. During the early fifties he sang with the City Center Opera, the New York Philharmonic and concertized throughout the United States and Mexico. For the next four seasons he was the director of the Utah Opera Theatre in Salt Lake City where he produced and conducted 24 operas. His much ac­ claimed performances in the leading theatres of Germany began in J 955. Since J 961 he has been a leading member of the Wurttembergische Staatsoper in . He has guest contracts with the companies of Vienna, Munich and Berlin. His Festival appear­ ances include Florence, Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Bayreuth and Athens. Mr. Alexander has had a particularly impressive association with Carl Orff; he has performed Kreon in "Antigonae" since 1955-including at the Athens Festival of 1967. He has sung in Orff's "Oedipus'' and recently took the leading part in the composer's "" at its world premiere in Stuttgart on March 24, 1968. Mr. Alexander's unusual repertoire includes over 100 roles in operas such as Busoni's "Doktor Faust", Pfitzner's "Palestrina", Prokofieff's "Angel of Fire" and Berg's "Lulu". Both he and Miss Borkh have recorded "Antigonae" for DGG.

WILLIAM LEWIS Versatility has been synonymous with the name of William Lewis since his memorable performance in the role of Tamino in the NBC Opera Theatre's production of Mozart's "The Magic ", with Leontyne Price. Subsequently he has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera as Rodo/jo, Narraboth and Andres in "Wozzeck". For the Opera he has sung Alfred in "Die Fledermaus" and Jolidon in 'The Merry Widow". With the Concert Opera Association he appeared in the world premiere of Weisgall's "Athaliah" and as the Emperor in Strauss' "". Another performance under Thomas Scherman's baton was Gherman in "Pique Dame". Mr. Lewis has concertized throughout the United States and Europe and has sung with such con­ ductors as Bernstein, Beecham, Boehm, Cleva, Mitropoulos and Stravinsky. He has recorded for RCA, Vanguard and Columbia.

ELIZABETH MANNION Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Mannion who is performing two roles in tonight's Antigonae is a graduate of the Cornish School of Music in Seattle and the University of Washington. After teaching in Seattle for two years she signed a contract with the NBC Television Opera. The following year brought her a Fulbright Scholarship to the Conserva­ tory in Germany and also a contract with the Bonn Opera. She has performed with the New York City Center Opera and concert audiences have heard her in Town Hall and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Miss Mannion has also been a member of the Chataqua Opera Festival and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her solo engagements with major orchestras include: The Seattle Symphony, NBC Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and the Bonn Symphony. NORMAN PAIGE Norman Paige, tonight's Tiresias is a member of the . He also sang with the Metropolitan Opera National Company during 1965-67. Prior to that en­ gagement, Mr. Paige was a member of the Linz State Theatre and the Cologne Opera. He has made many guest appearances with the opera companies of Vienna, Hamburg and Barcelona. His repertoire includes more than 50 lyric tenor and character tenor roles and in the United States he has sung with the companies of Seattle, Houston and Shreve­ port. This gifted tenor is an Affiliate Artist with Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. J. B. DAVIS - J. B. Davis began his theatre career as a Drama major at Washington and Lee Universities. Like many talented American artists, Mr. Davis gives much credit to the Goldovsky Opera Theatre. With that company he has performed Don Giovanni, Leporello, Don Alfonso and Don Pasquale. The Chataqua Festival has heard him as Don Bartolo in "The Barber of Seville" and the Seattle Opera was the scene of his Basilio in the Rossini work. He has also performed with the Lake George Opera Festival, the Houston Grand Opera and the New York City Opera.

LEO GOEKE Tenor Leo Goeke was born in Kirksville, Missouri and received Master degrees from Louisiana State University and the State University of Iowa. He has performed with the Experimental Opera Theatre of New Orleans, the St. Louis Municipal Opera, the Chataqua company and also the American Opera Society. His opera repertoire includes Don Jose, Tamino, Rinuccio, Nemorino, Rudol/o. In the lighter field of operetta and musical comedy he has appeared in presentations of "The Merry Widow", "The Student Prince" and "The King and 1". He is equally at home in the Oratorio repertory and his concert programs include music of all periods-Baroque, Romantic and Contemporary. His exemplary work as the alternate for lvo Zidek in the Society's recent production of "The Makropulos Case" led to Mr. Goeke being invited to make his debut with the Society in tonight's "Antigonae." JOHN OSTENDORF Bass-baritone John Ostendorf is the Leader of the Chorus in Antigonae. He is a gradu­ ate of Oberlin College and he made his first professional appearance with the Gilbert and Sullivan Theatre of Cape Cod. In Cleveland in 1967 he was the District winner of the Metropolitan Opera auditions and that same year he headed the list of winners in the Connecticut Opera Guild auditions. He has performed "The Lord Nelson Mass" under the baton of and he made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Oratorio Society of New York in a performance of Dvorak's Stabat Mater. Mr. Ostendorf is currently with the Metropolitan Opera Studio and will perform with that group at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium later this month.

HERBERT BARRETT, Manager THoMAS MATTHEWS, Associate Manager MARKS LEVINE, Consultant RicHARD CASLER, Lighting

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