Pierrot Lunaire: A Cabaret Opera

[Easleytee]

Schoenberg remains one of the top five composers in the entire Western Canon.

[blackmask1313]

Lucy Shelton is a Diva!

[coolguy9610]

Lovely! (Though Schoenberg would object...) The music perfectly expresses the vague, misty, eerie, feelings of the text, and the choreography only adds to it! Its obviously not meant to be taken literally for the most part. The choreography is just vague enough to obstruct the music. The singer could be louder in certain parts though...

[Anomylos]

i am really impressed with the art direction in this production. you guys just got yourselves a new fan. just saw a performance of this last night, followed by a jazz composer's adaptation based on themes from selected movements; so it was on my brain~~this is really the sort of thing i'd always hoped someone would do with this piece! kudos!

[dodaman22]

I just sniffed two tubes of glue and I still don't get it. I'll try some gas later.

[titobarria]

The only way to consider this sh!t music or even a composition, it`s to fill the critic with absurd comments. I know you Iam an ignorant....... hahaha, surely many will thing you are great music gurus.......

[emeboteerf]

Excellent, engaging production, thanks for sharing this!

[blackdeathgrind]

I usually don't like Schoenberg's work and generally I  hate opera, but this is too bizarre for me not to like.

[IndustrialLeper]

the whole suite is excellent

atonal music is not my usual thing either nut Pierrot Lunaire is unusally charismatic

[jeredeleon]

El pensamiento de la heroina detiene el tiempo, la lleva a descubrir el secreto de lo que redacta. Es una carta de amor es la cuestion mas importante o simplemente el amor de una dama que coquetea, desprecia, rie y sueña con su amado...

[ydracomagusy]

I like atonal music in small doses and like it when romantic or impressionist sounding works incorporate atonal moments in them. To me it's an important modern garnish to create just the right amount of that disconnected feeling in a piece so that you can be reintegrated and appreciate a lush section that's approaching. It's like a cherry on a big sundae. I appreciate it, even love certain parts, but this is a bucket of cherries.

[MrsMusicScene]

Lucy Shelton is great in this! And what a production!

[ros375]

20th century classical music, eith the exception of a few Impressionist pieces, is absolute garbage.

[MrsMusicScene]

You're so cute! This music is nearly 100 years old, and still people want to act like old fuddy duddies every time they're confronted by post-tonal fare. It's kind of sweet in a way.

[ros375]

The age of the piece has no significance. Once garbage, always garbage.

[alanrkay]

I don't understand how anyone who really knows 20th century music can make a remark like yours. I'm a professional musician, and I've premiered and performed hundreds of 20th century works. True, there have been some I don't like, but there are far more that I find engaging, compelling, worthwhile, and even beautiful. I respect that not all music is for everyone, but do you really mean to eliminate Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Britten, and Copland, to name only a few?

[ros375]

I probably hyperbolized in my statement. Certainly Copland and Bernstein, among others were exceptions. I respect that you're a musician, but let's remember that music is intended for the general public. I think that most "non-musical" citizens dislike this type of music. Someone would a vast knowledge of music theory would find this music fascinating. But aesthetically, the music fails.

[totallyclassic411]

This is absolute genius - certainly not the SAME as the great Mozarts, Bachs, Beethovens, or Wagners, but most certainly just as genius. Being a composer myself, I know that to master this composition technique is akin to mastery of classical technique. This technique is all about nuance and attention to tonal and rhythmic detail. It is creativity at its height. For anyone confused about the music itself, its beauty is that it doesn't give you a "fun" melody to follow - it is raw sentiment.

[alanrkay]

It's gratifying to see appreciation expressed for this great work, a work which was so important to music that its instrument combo (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano) has become known in musical circles as a "Pierrot combination." However, I can't agree with your "raw sentiment" comment. True, there is sentiment. But the piece is meticulously put together, mathematically at times. No. 18, "Der Mondfleck," for ex., is a musical palindrome. For me, there is more "raw" feeling in Mozart!

[murraytaylor123]

(comments directed at bear393 and StevenShields29 respectively)

[StevenShields29]

What the fuck is this shit? I still remember the first time I saw it performed. I busted out laughing.

Thank God that worthless, dead-end carcass called twelve-tone technique is dead and buried. Good riddance!

[murraytaylor123]

What a ridiculous thing to say. If you had any clue about music you'd know that 12-tone technique wasn't invented until years after this was written.

[bear393]

What for you makes this one of the greatest pieces of all time? Is it just that it is very Avant - guard, it is hardly pleasant to listen to, or is it in your opinion? The reason I ask is I am doing it for GCSE music and totally perplexed by Schoenburg's music, and indeed his later works of Serialism and other composers of the 2nd viennese school. i think knowing what people like about it will lead me to understand it better.

please reply,

cheers

[hungrydave1977]

try listening to his six little piano pieces. I think they demonstrate what can be achieved with atonality much better than this.

Also it depends on the context. If you jump straight from Romanticism to this it's baffling. Listen to 'salome' or 'verkarte nacht' to bridge the gap a bit.

[peterkennethsloan]

first, try to accept that some people really do like this kind of music (myself included). to us, it is not "hardly pleasant to listen to," but rather beautiful, moving, etc. it is not an academic exercise, but very human art.

once you understand that, try listening again, with open ears and no expectations. the music is not tonal and is not based on diatonic scales or major/minor triads, so don't listen for any. the more you listen, the more you will hear, and (i think) the more you will love!

[murraytaylor123]

Nobody's expected to like such a radically different style to what they're accustomed if they haven't been familiarised with it. Also, how does one attempt to quantify merit in ANY art, music, etc? The simple truth is that you might be loving Schoenberg's music in a week, a decade, or maybe never, but you never know unless you keep an open mind and ear.

[alanrkay]

It's simple: imagine you're watching a movie but paying close attention to the soundtrack. Most people are not aware that they are already avid listeners to "modern" music. The visual is enhanced by the musical in the case of a movie, but I think the key thing is that we listen to a soundtrack without any preconceptions, and this is how we should listen to music at all times. We cannot appreciate a piece by Schoenberg wishing it sounded like Beethoven or Mozart.

[bear393]

i dont know what to make of it. i almost cant bear to listen to it.

[vivacelife]

don't just "listen," feel it as well

[bcarman14]

this music sucks dick

[LapidalGrial]

Hermoso

(^.^)

[DougYfunnie]

what amazes me is the time this was written...and still, almost 100 years later, in the 21st century you have people saying this is "straight up freaky weird" and "the worst/scarriest thing I've ever seen". Schoenberg changed the face of music but it is yet to be totally accepted by mainstream musical society. Does anyone consider, maybe this is *supposed* to be freaky and weird?

[josuabrown]

I do think that this is supposed to be a little on the cabaret side of music, still not totally embraced. All one has to do is look listen to any 12-tone piece of music to know that Schoenberg was a little on the eccentric side. Plus, he came out of the expressionist movement. Those guys are just kind of wierd.

[MissGirlMisa]

@DougYfunnie Well, it's about insanity, and sometimes insanity is freaky and weird; especially for the people going through it.

[lucychinen]

Blair Thomas is an always changing and always experimenting puppet theatre designer. The costumes were designed by Tatjana Radisic which are also beautifully and appropriately shaped to the world of this piece. The style of puppetry employed to manipulate the lifesized puppet takes so much coordination I really don't think you can just focus on criticizing whether or not the music "sounds good to you" to determine if the whole thing is shit or genius. There are a lot more things going on.

[teo829]

Clever piece my ass.. This song is straight up freaky weird and I bet half of you serialism connoisseurs could even understand half of the what the lady is singing. I'd rather listen to Beethoven or Mozart..

[ShipsAreBurned]

This is the worst/scarriest thing I've ever seen. If someone dropped acid before seeing this, it would be all over for that guy.

[Sherendor]

well... plz dont say anything about wrong terms im used to the german ones ;)

[Mr9n]

Are you people deaf or totally insane!? This is so unbelievably terrible I want to pull out my ears and eat them.

[asdlkjfgh536]

It's actually supposed to sound like this, a brilliantly devised atonal work. It's not supposed to be easy on your ears.

[Mr9n]

It's supposed to sound terrible eh?

[Sherendor]

yes thats the point. expressionism dude, its like picasso - his paintings are intended to be ugly as well ;) hes famous, schönberg actually is not :P well thats life

[crazyeinsteinhair]

Actually, in most contemporary music circles, Schoenberg is probably among the top five most important and famous composers of the 20th century. The man was a revolutionary.

[Sherendor]

sure, but hes far away from being as well-known as picasso in public :D

[Phoenix3568]

comparing Picasso and Schoenberg is like comparing a fish sandwich with a potato salad.

[Sherendor]

at least, i like to eat both ^^

[Himinbrjotr]

Simply brilliant!

[N6NZE]

My great uncle Otto Erich Hartleben translated this from the

original french poem by Albert Giraud

in to German, rewriting parts that academics

and literature critics

said improved it.

[Viperplayer187]

sometimes its good for music to contain only ugliness

[Euphobia1]

Love it! So clever! Bravo! More please!

[GM1111111]

Those crazy Germans!

[gorgiax]

Excellent production, congratulations! I'd love to see it live. Great memory work done on the instrumentalists. Bravo!

[mfischer1]

ugh. this is AWFUL.

[elkodos]

Yup. Life's too short.

[rosiebamb]

if you studied serialism, i can garantee your opinion would change. it's the most amazing music to study ever.

[mfischer1]

Thats my idea of hell.

[blakchol]

Your production is so interesting! which recording of Pierrot is the best ? I want buy cd.

[tombei]

The commedia link makes a fair enough point.

I just mean it's a song cycle, not an opera or a theatre piece. and as far as catering for the everyday audience, that seems to be outside the spirit of the modernist tradition.

I guess what would make a snob like me happy would be for the 'everyday audience' to see a performance of a commedia show featuring pierrot, than with that understanding see a performance of the song cycle. picky, huh?

[54spiritedwill54]

This is great! Never seen a production before :D

[phddddd]

I simply adore this piece. WEll done.  Last saw it Sadler Wells.

[tombei]

this performance makes a mockery of schoenberg's original performance instruction. The music is intended to be interesting enough without the vocalist trivializing it with cheap theatrics. thats egotistical directors for you.

[chickenringNYC]

Word.

[simnos1]

Yeah.. but pierrot lunaire is all about cheap theatrics.

[DerekM8690]

this song gave me the chills the first time I heard it! It was the first time I realized music can REALLY affect the way you feel, even if you don't actually FEEL the music you're hearing...

[larryrael]

That's unbelievable! Playing this music off by heart!!!

[Nimuseel]

BWAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!

[stevenwryan]

For the singer there is only ONE (maybe two!) actual sung pitches written in this score. The rest is sprechstimme. So, I must state that singer is right on the money with her "singing". The interpretation is out of this world. It's a most difficult score. Thanks for the posting!

[Stormbringer123321]

psychodelic xD

[ColonelColostomy]

I'm very impressed by the musicians playing without scores. I'd very much like to see this work performed.

[rafaelmvs]

the musicians playng WITH scores. All sounds are In scores

[abyssalservant]

You know, most musicians play by memory outside of classical and sometimes jazz contexts . . .

[ColonelColostomy]

Well, duh. I meant I'm particularly impressed with this because it's a very complicated score.

[abyssalservant]

True. But examine people like Meshuggah, Behold . . The Arctopus and so for more memorized complications.

I personally find it a lot easier to play stuff by memory - if I've memorized it, I've practiced it that much more.

[blackbluetiger]

I've only ever seen it as a ballet, so isn't it a bit late to say it doesn't need theatrics?

[HerrWozzeck]

The interpretation isn't the greatest and the singer doesn't exactly get all the notes correct (but that last is given the difficulty of the intervals, so I won't emphasize that much), but it's an interesting document nonetheless.

You have the entire thing? Because it would be interesting to see the rest of it.

[drbenwaymd]

Shoenberg!!! I LOVE this! This mans music is so under-rated.

[jeromes1913]

viva shoenberg, non-musician people cant understand...

[christopherwildman]

How else do I, at the bottom tip of Africa, get to see "Pierrot Lunaire" which i am learnign to love except through this this video. Thank you! I loveher half moon faceand the excellent musicianship

[harell2005]

This is amazing. Thanks for posting this! I'm going to use it in my Music History class tomorrow.

[Bolender]

Schoenberg rocks!

[wesleyan97]

oh, what i would give to see your o alter duft in its entirety

[qwe07]

This is great! Never seen a production before!

[danielsan151]

Sweet!  The best Lunaire I've ever seen!