I attended the Metropolitan Opera's new production of "Moses und Aron" on
Wednesday night, and I want to report to list members on the unexpected
intensity of the experience.  I've been thinking about it non-stop for the
last two days.

I had gone expecting to see and hear an important, but marginal, curiosity
of music history.  What I found instead was a passionate and moving work
of art.  Surprisingly beautiful to listen to, intellectually profound in
substance, and given a production that was both colorful and playful yet
serious at the same time.  Schoenberg's searingly personal portrayal of
Moses as the misunderstood artist, struggling to express his "infinite,
inexpressible" idea of God and unable to find an adequate representation
for his thoughts, brought me to the verge of tears by the end of the
performance, while bringing to mind the writings of other artists as
distant as Kafka and Beckett.  And of course it is a joy to hear the Met
Orchestra tackle an ambitious score of such difficulty and complexity.

It goes without saying that neither the music nor the content will be for
everyone's ears.  But I urge anyone in the New York area with the slightest
inclination to rush out and buy a ticket for one of the two remaining
performances.  Don't miss out!

Evan Zelermyer