Strutture temporali e tipizzazione fiabesca in 'Der Mond' di Carl Orff

Abstract

In Der Mond, a work staged in 1939, Carl Orff set to music a fairy tale from the Grimms' collection and tried to pinpoint appropriate stage solutions—as he was to do again, few years later, in his fairy opera, Die Kluge, also from the Grimms. This essay takes up Werner Thomas' research (1994) and shows how Orff put together this miniature Baroque theatrum mundi by emphasizing archaic mythic elements the original tale left in the background. Two elements are vital for the stage production to be effective: (1) the narrator, who makes the work resemble an oratorio or a Brecht Lehrstück; (2) Part II introduction by Petrus, the Heaven Watcher—a parable on the meaning and fate of humankind. A thorough analysis of the plot must take into account such folk-tale laws as the law of cyclical time structure, described by the noted theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin. His work is often cited here, to point out the typical folksy time structures the stolen moon tale displays.