On paper, Moses und Aron might seem intractable and abstract: a 12-tone score setting a libretto that meditates on God, faith, the essential inadequacy of language to express the ineffable, and a great deal more. Put it in the theatre, as Welsh National Opera has done as the first part of its ‘Faith’ mini-season, and it’s an overwhelming experience, compelling because of, rather than in spite of, its subject matter and musical methods.
And just over 80 years after Schoenberg stopped work on it (he left it incomplete, having written only a fragmentary text for the third act), its themes are as pertinent as ever. Political parallels with a people longing for quick fix, tangible solutions to their woes don’t need to be spelt out; but, after a week in which the opera world seemed intent on tearing itself apart because of the manner in which ideas regarding a singer’s on-stage persona were translated into words, there were also additional ironies.
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