Search - Horst Lunow, Karl-Heinz Stryczek, Siegfried Lorenz :: Orff: Die Kluge/Der Mond

Because of the absence of libretto, an appeal limited to Ger

Discophage | France | 12/06/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The universal success of his warhorse Carmina Burana has more or less eclipsed Carl Orff's other compositions, even the two sequels to Carmina Burana: Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite - all three of which the composer subsumed under the general title Trionfi (Carl Orff: Trionfi). And the same is true with his operas. Truth is, it is difficult to decide which of his works are operas. Even Carmina Burana has something of the stage since Orff subtitled it "A Scenic Cantata" and meant it to be staged, while on the other hand he called none of his stage works an "opera", and moved progressively towards a hybrid form combining music, sung text and spoken word (a prime example being his masterpiece from 1949 "Antigonae", a setting of the complete Sophocles play in the famous German translation by Hölderlin, seeking to recapture the original shape of a Greek Tragedy with its unique combination of percussive music and declamation: Orff: Antigonae). Hence, Antigonae" (1949) and its sequel "Oedipus der Tyrann" (1959: Oedipus der Tyrann/Oedipus the King/Oedipe le tyran) are called "Trauerspiel" (Tragedies), but the third pendant of that triptych, "Prometheus" (after Aeschylus this time), bears no subtitle (Carl Orff: Prometheus or Orff: Prometheus).



The same is true with "Die Kluge" ("The Wise", or "Clever", or "Cunning Woman") composed in 1942 and premiered a year later, but Orff referred to it as well as to "Der Mond" (from 1939, two years after Carmina Burana) as "Märchenoper" (Fairy-tale operas). Nonetheless, by 1942 and "Die Kluge" Orff was already moving in the direction of stage compositions that were as much theatre as music, and it contains large portions of purely spoken text, not so much transitional passages as in the traditional German Singspiel, as full scenes. Der Mond (The Moon) from 1939 is titled "ein kleines Welttheater" (a Little World-Theatre) and is the most entirely musical of both, meaning that purely spoken text is less prominent (but not absent).



Both works are inspired by Fairy-tales published in the famous collections of the Grimm Brothers: "Der Mond" and "Die Kluge Bauerntochter" ("The Clever Peasant's Daughter"), to which, in "Die Kluge", Orff added a sub-plot of his own, involving three farcical robbers (and it is mostly their scenes that are spoken, although they also sing at times). The music is not as memorable as Carmina Burana's, but still it is highly enjoyable, even quite atmospheric and poetic in "Der Mond", containing little of the martial and heavily pulsed music so characteristic of Carmina's first two and last numbers (to the point that many neglect the rest of the composition). On the contrary, the inspiration is closer to that of the inner parts of Carmina, "In Taberna" and "Cours d'Amours". At times, in "Der Mond", it even reminded me of Puccini (the comical Puccini of Turandot's Ping-Pang-Pong trio) and Leoncavallo (the boisterous Leoncavallo of the comedians' arrival in the village).



In fact and ironically, it is striking how much "Die Kluge" (composed and performed in Nazi Germany, remember) could be a Lehrstück (pedagogical piece) written by the Brecht-Dessau, or Brecht-Eisler team (banned by the Nazis of course). By the same token, and as the liner notes rightly point out, there is something very Brechtian in the use of a narrator in "Der Mond", willingly creating a distance to prevent the audience from being entirely captured in the story.



I won't risk an interpretive comment as these are the first and only versions in my collection. Others exist - Sawallisch recorded them in 1956 and 1957 (Carl Orff: Die Kluge/Der Mond), and there is a version by Kurt Eichhorn from 1973 conducting Munich forces and a stellar cast of soloists (Lucia Popp, Tom Stewart, Gottlob Frick, Orff: Die Kluge, Der Mond [Germany]). Here, under Kegel and his East-German forces ("Der Mond" in 1970, while the recording dates of "Die Kluge" are very puzzlingly attributed to "6/1976, 4/1978, 11/1979 and 12/1980" - that must be one of the longest gestation in the history of classical music recording, although I heard no seams), it is all very well characterized and with genuine theatre verve (a stage director - the German "Regie" - is even credited in "Der Mond"). The soprano singing the Peasant's daughter in "Die Kluge" should have a voice that makes you fall in love with her - here, Magdalena Falewicz is simply competent, although her lullaby (track 10) is quite touching. But I suspect that Schwarzkopf (with Sawallisch) and particularly Lucia Popp (with Eichhorn) must be much more moving. But, oh, to hear Gundula Janowitz (the unforgettable soloist in Eugen Jochum's classic account of Carmina Burana, Orff: Carmina Burana), now that would be like being in another world.



The set presents problems though that limit its appeal to German-speaking audiences. The accompanying booklet comes with no libretto, only a more or less detailed synopsis of "Die Kluge"- but not detailed enough, frustratingly, to give the three riddles that the king asks the cunning peasant daughter (think of having no clue of the content of Turandot's three riddles to Calaf). There was only one in the original Grimm tale, so referring to it is no help. Add to that that, as mentioned, big chunks of Orff's compositions are purely theatre-spoken, making the absence of a libretto even more frustrating to non-German speaking audiences. As for "Der Mond", the complete Grimm tale is given (it is rather short) and that helps since the narrator sings large chunks of it as it is- although not having the German and the English version vis-à-vis but 10 pages apart won't be very comfortable to the listeners with no notion of German. Still, whenever Orff (who wrote the libretto himself) departs and transposes the story in direct style (which is fairly often), again non-German speaking listeners will only have a dim notion of the precise goings-on. The fact that the tale's synopsis doesn't provide the correspondence with the - commendably numerous - cue points is a further impediment.



I'm fairly proficient with German so I enjoyed these two discs (although I frustratingly DIDN'T catch the three riddles of "Die Kluge"), but for those who aren't, approach with some caution then. However, I don't know if the competing versions provide complete libretto.

"