It has been said that Arnold Schönberg is a composer whose works are more written about than performed. Another form of this left-handed compliment: Schönberg is a composer's composer. Be it as it may, he cast a long shadow on 20th century music and his influence is still felt.
This opera, his only, was released in 1932 but never completed. It was first staged in 1957, after the composer's death in 1951 (there was a concert performance in 1954). The story is the struggle between Moses and Aron. Moses is a fanatic who believes he is in possession of The Law but despairs of communicating it to the people, while Aron doesn't care much for the details of The Law but has the gift of making his version understandable to, and loved by the masses. This story, like many others in the Bible is archetypal; Moses symbolizes revolutionaries in all disciplines whose new and untrodden paths are misunderstood/rejected by the public. Among the interpretations of the opera, this is the most amusing: Moses stands for Schönberg, despairing of having the public appreciate his twelve-tone system of composition, while Aron represents Schönberg's disciple Alban Berg, who used twelve-tone only when it suited him and composed two masterpieces, Wozzeck and Lulu that are in the regular repertory of many opera houses and frequently staged, unlike Moses und Aron.
Moses and Aron puts Schönberg's mastery of the orchestra and the human voice at the service of the story. For instance, Aron's singing nears bel canto, while Moses dellvers his lines in Sprechstimme, a cross between speaking and singing and sounds abrupt and nearly inarticulate at times. However, refined techniques do not add up to an inspired opera. This movie was the first attempt to put the work on screen. Direction by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet is static, with fixed camera angles (as in most of their work) but this goes well with the opera, which is itself static except for a few crowd scenes.
Since 1975, there have been other stagings and recordings of the opera. Some are in DVD, some in the streaming services, some in You Tube.. A final touch: apparently Schönberg changed the usual Aaron to Aron so that the title had 12 letters. 12 tones or avoidance of 13?
