Arnold Schoenberg: Moses und Aron

One of the greatest revolutions in the history of mankind happened nearly 3000 years ago: the transition from polytheism to monotheism through the prophet Moses. God revealed himself directly to Moses, instructing him in absolute truth. God’s call to Moses presented a new idea that exploded all previous religious concepts: ‘One God – unique, eternal, intangible, inconceivable’. Moses understands this concept, but is unable to express it, and therefore God appoints Moses’ brother Aaron as his spokesman. They are bound to fail: Aaron can only approach sharing the idea by compromising its meaning, whilst Moses is left to search fruitlessly for “the word I lack …”.

When Arnold Schoenberg composed what he regarded as the dramatisation of his religious beliefs, he felt as though he was himself a Moses of the art. “Endowed with a sense of mission”, Schönberg continually reflected on how “to make the unfathomable, fathomable”.

The operatic staging of this extraordinary idea by Hans Mayer involves scenic visions that make demands on stage machinery way beyond the boundaries of possibility. The impact of his grandiose composition is a deeply religious debate, uncompromising, radical and forthright.