Moses and Aron is one of the most important Schoenberg's work. He wrote the text and the music. The musical language is very complicated and perform this opera is always a challenge. This film uses one of the finest recordings of Schoenberg's masterpiece as sound, the 1974 recording conducted by Michael Gielen. That could be a very good start, but really, I prefer to listen this recording to watch this grotesque film. I think the direction used only two cameras as the images are always the same for long periods. Moses and Aron look as characters of the "Ten commandments" by Cecil B D. Mile. Israel's people is a ridiculous small choir, all the times without any kind of expression. The second act, with the scene of the orgy around the Golden Calf, is all-comic. At the beginning of the worship, there is a solo of trombone, very dramatic. What we see? A bored camel, nothing more. Other comic moment is when two young have sexual relations. It is as exciting as one advertising of a flue medicament. I am sure that people that heard this magnificent opera for the first time watching this film, never more will try to listen it again. Thank goodness, there are two excellent videos of this opera, one from the Ruhrtriennale 2009 and one from the Vienna Staatsoper.
Review of Moses und Aron
