Hugo Shirley

WNO’s production of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron is an overwhelming experience – but make sure you close your eyes

… and keep them closed for Patrice Chereau’s Elektra at La Scala

Towering but vulnerable presence: John Tomlinson as Moses [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy] 
issue 31 May 2014

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.

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