“The lesson that was forcibly instilled in me last year, I’ve learned at last, and I’ll never forget it: I’m not a German, nor a European, perhaps hardly even a human being, but I am a Jew.” Despite converting to Protestantism in his youth, Schönberg was the target of anti-Semitic attacks from 1921 onwards. The violence of this rejection shook him and decided him to return to his roots, while developing a very personal reading of the Old Testament. Sketched out in the form of a cantata, which was soon expanded to the dimensions of an oratorio, the project became a philosophical opera pitting the two brothers Moses and Aaron, radicalism and compromise, or embarrassed speech and the lyricism of song, against the versatile community embodied by choirs of exceptional importance.
Casting & credits
Music and libretto by Arnold Schönberg in German
Opera in two acts (1954)
Creation at Opéra National de Paris – 17th October to 9th November 2015
Restaged at Teatro Real in Madrid – 24th May to 17th June 2016
Conductor Philippe Jordan Director, sets, costumes and lighting Romeo Castellucci Choreography Cindy Van Acker Artistic collaborator Silvia Costa Dramaturge Christian Longchamp,Piersandra Di Matteo Chorus master José Luis Basso Ensemble from Opéra national de Paris Chorus Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine / Chœur d'enfants de l'Opéra national de Paris With Moses: Thomas Johannes Mayer, Aron: John Graham-Hall ; Ein Junges Mädchen: Julie Davies, Eine Kranke: Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Ein junger Mann: Nicky Spence, Der Nackte Jüngling: Michael Pflumm, Ein Mann: Chae Wook Lim, Ein anderer Mann Ephraimit: Christopher Purves, Ein priester Ralf: Lukas Vier, Nackte Jungfrauen: Julie Davies, Maren Favela, Valentina Kutzarova, Elena Suvorova, Drei Älteste Shin: Jae Kim, Olivier Ayault, Jian-Hong Zhao, Sechs Solostimmen: Béatrice Malleret, Isabelle Wnorowska-Pluchart, Marie-Cécile Chevassus, John Bernard, Chae Wook Lim, Julien Joguet Production Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Real Madrid
About
The last line Moses utters, “O word, thou word that I lack”, sums up the prophet’s tragic weakness and his inability to overcome his own contradictions. Having officially returned to Judaism in Paris shortly before his exile to the United States, the inventor of twelve-tone music was himself prey to an almost existential powerlessness during the two decades remaining to him, that of completing Moses und Aron. With this masterpiece, Philippe Jordan leads all the musical forces of the Paris Opéra, and Romeo Castellucci makes his long-awaited debut on the stage of the Opéra Bastille.
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