Barrie Kosky and Vladimir Jurowski bring Moses und Aron to the Komische Oper Berlin

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1 Press release dated /acr A 20th-century masterpiece to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz back in Berlin after ten years Barrie Kosky and Vladimir Jurowski bring Moses und Aron to the Komische Oper Berlin Première: Sunday 19 April p.m. Arnold Schönberg s Moses und Aron is an opera which poses special challenges for any opera house: more than 200 people onstage, countless rehearsals for the main protagonist of the piece the choir and a highly complex score which demands the utmost of the vocalists and musicians. With the staging of the opera, which was created between 1930 and 1932 in Berlin but was only premièred posthumously as a two-act torso in 1954/1957, Artistic Director Barrie Kosky is bringing Moses und Aron to the Komische Oper Berlin for the first time. It is a unique project: only six performances are being planned and he is fulfilling the dream he has held for 25 years of staging Schönberg s opera. The musical direction will be carried out by the Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski, who began his international career over 20 years ago at the opera house in the Behrenstraße. This will also be his first time conducting Moses und Aron. Moses will be played by Robert Hayward, with Andreas Conrad taking on the role of Aron. The choirs of the Komische Oper Berlin will be supported in this gargantuan project by the Vocalconsort Berlin. An inter-faith parable about the search for true faith and the promised land, an unfinished magnum opus of a musical innovator, monument of twelve-tone composition, an opera about the biblical exodus of the Jewish people, written by a composer displaced because of his Jewish heritage Arnold Schönberg s Moses und Aron offers many points of interpretation, but is so complex that it can barely be grasped in one sitting. The staging of Moses und Aron is being made possible thanks to funding from the Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (German Lottery Foundation Berlin). Information on the crew, cast and performance dates, as well as background information and selected biographies, can be found on the following pages. Stiftung Oper in Berlin/Komische Oper Berlin Behrenstraße 55 57, D Berlin Press enquiries: +49 (0) Fax +49 (0) Dr Andrea C. Röber Press spokesperson a.roeber@komische-oper-berlin.de

2 Arnold Schönberg Moses und Aron Opera in two acts [1957] Text by the composer Musical direction: Vladimir Jurowski Staging: Barrie Kosky Stage design and lighting: Klaus Grünberg Costumes: Klaus Bruns Dramaturgy: Ulrich Lenz Artistic collaboration: Susanna Goldberg Chorus: David Cavelius Cast Robert Hayward (Moses), Andreas Conrad (Aron) and others Choir of the Komische Oper Berlin and Vocalconsort Berlin Dates and times Introductory matinee: Sun 12 Apr 2015, 12 p.m. (pre-opera breakfast from 10 a.m.) Première: Sunday 19 April 2015, 7 p.m. Further dates: 24 and 28 April 2 and 10 May 7 July Tickets Ticket hotline +49 (0) Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday and public holidays 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Prices: karten@komische-oper-berlin.de 2

3 Background Barrie Kosky has been dreaming of staging Moses und Aron for 25 years. Now he is putting Schönberg s opera on the programme of the Komische Oper Berlin to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The creation of this opera is closely intertwined with Berlin. It reflects the displacement of Schönberg, a Jew who converted to Christianity, by the National Socialists in Schönberg re-converted to Judaism soon thereafter. Schönberg s engagement with the biblical prophet Moses, who while leading the Israelites on their long journey to the promised land must constantly re-enthuse them for the one true God, already began in the early 1920s and occupied the composer for the following decades until his death. Once the National Socialists came to power, Schönberg left Berlin in May 1933 together with his family in his luggage were the completed first two acts of what he intended to be a three-act opera, composed by him using the twelve-tone technique he himself had developed. In Paris, Schönberg then returned to the Jewish faith, before emigrating to the USA, where he remained until his death in Despite repeatedly declaring his intent to do so, Schönberg never wrote the score for the final act of Moses und Aron. The rarely performed Moses und Aron was last staged in Berlin at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Content and structure In Moses und Aron, Arnold Schönberg tells of the timeless myth of faith, of humankind s search for the promised land, with the help of powerful, theatrical music which dissolves the boundaries between opera, oratorio and symphony. Choral music, song and recitative merge in numerous ways; Schönberg s method of composition using twelve inter-related tones is richly varied. With this work, he proved beyond doubt the ability of atonal composition to carry works of this length and complexity. Symbolically charged moments are juxtaposed with opulent crowd scenes. The story surrounding the two brothers and leaders of the people of Israel, each of whom is seeking in his own way to convey the new faith in the one true God, is common to Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Schönberg conveys the conflict between the purely intellectual concept of the godly and its defilement within its linguistic and visual translation into his music and vocals: Moses, who wishes to preserve the purity of the godly ideal with his ban on idolatry, expresses himself only through sprechgesang in Schönberg s work. Aron, on the other hand, who brings faith from the intellectual realm into the sphere of language and images, sings. 3

4 Religion and twelve-tone technique In the early 1920s, confronted with the growing anti-semitism throughout Europe, Schönberg began to engage with the religion of his ancestors more closely, something eloquently reflected not only in his opera Moses und Aron but also in his oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Jacob s Ladder, and his play The Biblical Way, completed in In The Biblical Way, Schönberg addresses the vision of creating a new state for the Jewish people outside of Europe, and thereby takes up a key idea of modern political Zionism as founded by Theodor Herzl ( ). Like Herzl, Schönberg felt he had an almost messianic calling: he did not view his rejection of tonality, which by 1909 was all-encompassing, as a break with tradition; instead, he viewed it as a logical step in a long-emerging development as something akin to a mission which no one but he had been elected to fulfil. It had to be someone, and nobody was willing, so I volunteered, as he put it. Moses has to rely on Aron to capture the abstract notion of godliness using comprehensible words and images. Aron is the magician who is eloquently and cunningly able to convince the doubting Israelites to follow Moses and his oh-so-different God. Yet do Aron s words and conjuring tricks not already alter or even defile the pure idea which Moses finds so impossible to encapsulate in words? Moses und Aron is a captivating musical drama about the neverending search, about an unquenchable longing. The fact that the opera remained uncompleted is perhaps explained by the theme of the piece itself: the conflict between Moses and his brother Aron is not the only thing which is ultimately irreconcilable. The never-ending search for the promised land for Schönberg as much as for the Jewish people, who also serve as a metaphor for all of humankind can only ever prove fruitless. It is therefore presumably no coincidence that both the twelve-tone Moses und Aron and the oratorio Jacob s Ladder remain only fragments. Theodor Herzl did not live to witness the creation of the state of Israel. And even the biblical Moses did not ever get to enter the promised land... 4

5 Biography: Barrie Kosky Barrie Kosky has been the artistic director and head director of the Komische Oper Berlin since the 2012/13 season. His most recent productions here were The Monteverdi-Trilogy, The Magic Flute, Ball at the Savoy, West Side Story, Castor and Pollux, La Belle Hélène and A woman who knows what she wants!. Barrie Kosky has also staged productions at a variety of opera houses, including the Bayerische Staatsoper München, the Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, the Frankfurt Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the English National Opera in London, the Vienna State Opera, the Opera Graz, the Staatsoper Hannover and the Aalto Theater Essen. Future productions will also lead him to London s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Teatro Real Madrid and the Zurich Opera House. In 2017 he will stage Wagner s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg at the Bayreuth Festival. Biography: Vladimir Jurowski The Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski served as First Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin from 1997 to 2001, and was the Musical Director of the Glyndebourne opera festival from 2001 to Since 2007, he has been the Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, taking over from Kurt Masur. In recent years he has been a guest at various opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra national de Paris and Milan s Scala, as well as being hosted by Europe and North America s major orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. His comprehensive discography includes Jurowski s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exile by Giya Kancheli as well as numerous recordings with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His musical direction of the production at the Komische Oper Berlin will mark Vladimir Jurowski s Moses und Aron début. 5