The moon (opera)
Work data | |
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Title: | The moon |
Original title: | The moon |
Original language: | German |
Music: | Carl Orff |
Libretto : | Carl Orff |
Literary source: | The moon , fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm |
Premiere: | February 5, 1939 |
Place of premiere: | National Theater Munich |
Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
Place and time of the action: | fairy tale |
people | |
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Der Mond is an opera in one act by Carl Orff , based on the fairy tale Der Mond by the Brothers Grimm . Orff wrote both the libretto and the music.
The work is often performed together with Orff's other one-act play Die Kluge (1943) based on Grimm's fairy tales .
action
Four lads from a country without a moon, where it is dark at night, set off on a journey and arrive at a country where a luminous ball hangs on an oak tree and emits light at night. When asked what it was, a farmer replied that their mayor (now the mayor) had bought this so-called moon and that he is now pouring oil on it every day for a fee to keep it glowing. The boys decide to steal the moon and take it back to their country. There they also hang it on an oak tree and demand a corresponding fee from the municipality. As the boys grow old and realize that they are about to die, they one by one decide that each of them wants to take a quarter of the moon to their grave with them. In this way the moon reaches the underworld and wakes the dead with its unusual light. These become active again and begin to have fun loudly. When Saint Peter saw this noise, he called the heavenly hosts together, believing that the dead would attack. Since there was no attack, Peter went personally to the underworld, calmed the dead and took the moon with him to heaven, where he hung it. The opera ends with a solo for zither and the subsequent speaking voice of a small child who discovers the moon in the sky again: "Ah, there is the moon!"
orchestra
3 large (also small ) flutes , 3 oboes (also English horn ), 3 clarinets (also bass clarinet ), 2 bassoons (also contrabassoon ), 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , 1 tuba , timpani , percussion for 5 players ( large and Snare drum , stirrer drum, tambourine , triangle , xylophone , cymbal , various cymbals , tam-tam , ratchet , rod , sleigh bells , castanets , clock bell, tubular bells , glass set , glockenspiel , metallophone ), harmonium , accordion , harp , celesta , piano , zither , strings .
Incidental music : organ , mixed choir , percussion (bell, 3 stirring drums, bass drum, cymbals and tam-tams), thunder and wind machine , guard horn ( tuba ), lightning and impact.
Stylistic position
Carl Orff did not call his work “opera”, but “a small world theater”.
Orff adopted the text of the fairy tale without change as the basis for his libretto. It is read by the narrator. The text is supplemented by the dramatic interjections of the characters.
history
The composition was created in 1937/38. The world premiere on February 5, 1939 in the Bavarian State Opera in Munich was directed by Clemens Krauss .
Recordings / sound carriers
- Christ - Schmitt-Walter - Graml - Kuén - Lagger - Peter - Hotter - Rösner - Holloway - Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus - Conductor: Sawallisch . EMI 1958
- Kesteren - Friedrich - Kagel - Gruber - Kusche - Grumbach - Buchta - Strassner - Crass - Münchner Rundfunkorchester - Director: Carl Orff - Conductor: Eichhorn . RCA 1970
- Eberhard Büchner - Fred Teschler - Horst Lunow - Helmut Klotz - Armin Terzibaschian - Reiner Süß u. a. - Rundfunkchor Leipzig, choir master: Horst Neumann; Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig, conductor: Herbert Kegel ; ETERNA 8 26 332-333 (1973)
literature
- Kurt Pahlen , Rosemarie König: Carl Orff. The moon. The clever. Opera guide. Goldmann, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-442-33040-8 .
- Andreas Liess: Carl Orff. Idea and work. Revised edition. Goldmann, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-442-33038-6 .
- Werner Thomas: Das Rad der Fortuna ─ Selected essays on the work and impact of Carl Orff. Schott, Mainz 1990, ISBN 3-7957-0209-7 .
- Werner Thomas: Orff's fairy tale pieces. The moon ─ the clever one. Schott, Mainz 1994, ISBN 3-7957-0266-6 .
Web links
- Work data for Der Mond based on MGG with discography at Operone