One of the most striking evenings I have ever spent in an opera
house was in Stuttgart in 1980 watching a double bill of Carl
Orff operas. In that instance
Die Kluge coupled with Orff’s
orchestration/arrangement of Monteverdi’s
Klage der
Ariadne. Both works struck me then as eminently theatrical
whilst occupying a very similar sound-world to parts of
Carmina
Burana. That heritage, both timbral and aesthetic is shared
by the work under consideration here -
Antigonae. Sticking
with the classical analogy; Janus-like (OK I know its Roman not
Greek!) this work occupies an important place in Orff’s
oeuvre as it sits on the cusp between the populist primitivism
of the works mentioned above and the declamatory theatre works
-
Oedipus der Tyrann (1959) and
Prometheus. Antigonae dates
from the end of the 1940s when Orff was still coming out from
under the cloud of his perceived Nazi sympathies. As part of
his post-war defence he had claimed (fictitious) membership of
the German resistance movement
Die Weisse Rose (The White
Rose). Apparently some see parallels between the classical tragedy
of Antigonae and the execution of Sophie Scholl (another young
woman who defied the state to do what she perceived as right)
- one of the key members of
Die Weisse Rose - by the Nazis
in 1943. By coincidence 1943 was the year of
Die Kluge’s
composition.
Whatever the ultimate truth of this work’s origins it makes
for a curious opera. Orff acknowledged as much by describing
the piece not as an opera but as a
Vertonung, a "musical
setting" and indeed the work comes across as a sequence
of almost ritualised encounters. How much is lost in the translation
from stage to audio only I do not know but in this form it works
rather well. Certainly so when it is projected as powerfully
as in this historical performance from Bavarian Radio in 1958.
Sonically it is remarkable and historically benefits from the
presence and praise of the composer who wrote warmly to Martha
Mödl who plays the eponymous heroine: “again I express
my thanks and sincere admiration for your great Antigonae. Some
time will pass before ‘the masses’ and the press
(not all, but most of it) are capable of grasping and appreciating
such a performance ...” Sadly, as someone who cannot speak
German the absence of a complete libretto or even a detailed
synopsis makes the following of the dramatic narrative all but
impossible. Here is the synopsis as copied from Wikipedia (the
one in the liner-notes is even shorter!):
The opera begins in the early morning following a battle in
Thebes between the armies of the two sons of Oedipus: Eteocles
and Polynices. King Kreon, who ascended the throne of Thebes
after both brothers are killed in battle, decrees that Polynices
is not to be buried. Antigonae, his sister, defies the order,
but is caught. Kreon decrees that she be buried alive in spite
of the fact that she is betrothed to his son, Haemon. The Gods,
through the blind prophet Tiresias, express their disapproval
of Kreon's decision, which convinces him to rescind his order,
and he goes to bury Polynices. However, Antigonae has already
hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Kreon arrives
at the tomb where she was to be interred, his son, Haemon, attacks
him and then kills himself. Finally, when Kreon's wife, Eurydice,
is informed of Haemon's and Antigonae's deaths she, too, takes
her own life. At the end of the opera Kreon is the only principal
left alive.
The libretto is in fact a line for line setting of Friedrich
Hölderlin’s German translation of Sophocles’ original
play of 442 BC. This results in an opera running only a few minutes
shy of two and a half hours. Much of the text is declaimed in
the quasi-sung style Orff called
singstimmen. This shares
certain of the characteristics of
sprechgesang but remains
more tonally centred. Punctuating these extended tracts of declaimed
text are instrumental interludes which one would have to call
minimalist - track 3 CD 1 gives a good idea of this. Orff uses
a very particular instrumentation: 6 flutes (all doubling piccolos),
6 oboes (3 doubling Cor Anglais), 6 trumpets, 4 harps, 6 pianos
(all played 4-hands), 9 double-basses and a huge percussion section
requiring 10-15 players. Theoretically this could produce a vast
wall of sound but Orff uses it very sparingly - usually punctuating
the text with sharp-edged ‘events’ either high or
low in pitch. Indeed the woodwind, harps and brass are held in
reserve and used very sparingly indeed - the vast bulk of the
instrumental accompaniment being reserved for the pianos and
percussion. The male choir - very much in the style of the
In
Taberna section of
Carmina Burana - seems to have
the function of a Greek chorus, commenting on the unfolding drama.
So typical of Orff is their semi-sung rhythmic exultant declamation
of text over throbbingly insistent piano/percussion ostinati.
It’s a sound both sophisticated and primitive but thrilling
in either case [CD 2 track 5 - is a perfect example].
It is to the enduring credit of the performers here with such
minimal melodic material and the absence of any extended explanation
of the action that they manage to hold one’s attention
as powerfully as they do. Try the opening to Act 2 [CD 1 tracks
9-10]. I love the menacing male choir and Paul Kuen’s vibrant
tenor is ideally suited to Orff’s penetrating high lines.
Conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch is now regarded very much as one
of the old school but it is easy to forget his contribution to
the contemporary music scene of fifty or so years ago. I do not
have access to any other performances for comparison’s
sake but this sounds compellingly authentic. He was the conductor
on the famous studio recordings of
Die Kluge and
Der
Mond with Schwarzkopf and the Philharmonia at about the same
time as this performance; 1957 original release but now just
re-released on EMI at a silly price. As a record of some fine
singing too it takes some beating; all of the main roles are
powerfully and dramatically sung. Checking the catalogue there
have been several performances released on CD but only one seems
to have derived from a studio recording - that on DG featuring
Inge Borkh in the title role - which has been praised for its
charismatic performances. It is not clear if the recording under
discussion is a studio/radio recording or a live performance.
I suspect the latter - there is a little extraneous audience
sound - so perhaps a concert rather than a stage performance.
Mödl had performed the role before - that recording with
Fritz Wunderlich in the supporting cast (was there ever a more
flexible tenor!) is still available from Archipel; it’s
a live performance from Stuttgart in 1956 and you can’t
help feeling that this role is one that she has both lived with
and inhabits fully. Try CD 2 track 4 for an example of her total
commitment to the drama of the role.
I find the later Orff harder to warm to - the Karajan led
De
Temporum Fine Comoedia from 1977 sits on my CD shelves gathering
dust - just the 25-30 percussionists needed there. However this
work is instantly more essentially dramatic. For sure you could
argue that Orff is a one-trick pony as far as the sound-world
he creates but conversely he is far more than a one-work wonder.
Given the extended declaimed text this is an opera/performance
piece that would require an idiomatic translation to claim a
toe-hold in a non-German speaking opera house but with an appropriate
staging and charismatic leads I could imagine this making a compelling
evening in the theatre. Have
any of Orff’s operas/stage
works been professionally staged in the UK? - I don’t know.
Certainly
Antigonae is a far weightier work than the two
fairy-tale pieces mentioned earlier and they are closer still
to the sound-world of
Carmina Burana. Even so, I have
been really taken by this work. I could see it capturing the
imagination of the same kind of English National Opera audience
who respond to Philip Glass or John Adams. I would have to say
that in my humble opinion it is superior to either.
Full marks to Hänssler for releasing this performance. The
sound quality is absolutely first rate with little if any allowance
having to be made for the age of the recording or presence of
an audience. The essay in the liner-note is good but the omission
of extended synopsis let alone libretto is little short of scandalous.
This is being released at mid-upper price and the documentation
should reflect the cost. Given the literal setting of the Hölderlin
text it is possible to find that online and refer to it while
following the performance. I tried to see if there was a libretto
available via the Hänssler website but had no luck following
a fairly cursory search. For those who no longer wish to leave
their choice of Orff to ‘fortune empress of the world’ this
is music which rewards the adventurous listener richly.
Nick Barnard
Antigonae - Martha
Mödl (soprano) 
