De temporum fine comoedia

De temporum fine comoedia
Opera by Carl Orff

The composer, aquatint etching
Description mystery play
Translation A Play on the End of Time
Language
  • Greek
  • German
  • Latin
Based on prophetic writings
Premiere 20 August 1973 (1973-08-20)
Salzburg Festival

De temporum fine comoedia (Latin for A Play on the End of Time) is an opera or musical play by 20th century German composer Carl Orff. It was his last work and took ten years to compose (1962 to 1972, revised in 1979). Its premiere was at the Salzburg Music Festival on 20 August 1973 by Herbert von Karajan and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, staged by August Everding. In this highly personal work Orff presented a mystery play in which he summarized his view of the end of time, sung in Ancient Greek, Latin, and German (translation by Wolfgang Schadewaldt.[1][2]

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere cast,
20 August 1973[3]
(Conductor: Herbert von Karajan)
1st Sibyl soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow
2nd Sibyl soprano Colette Lorand
3rd Sibyl soprano Jane Marsh
4th Sibyl soprano Kay Griffel
5th Sibyl soprano Gwendolyn Killebrew
6th Sibyl soprano Kari Løvaas
7th Sibyl mezzo-soprano Heljiä Angervo
8th Sibyl mezzo-soprano Sylvia Anderson
9th Sibyl mezzo-soprano Glenys Loulis
1st Anachoret tenor Erik Geisen
2nd Anachoret tenor Hans Wegmann
3rd Anachoret baritone Hans Helm
4th Anachoret baritone Wolfgang Anheisser
5th Anachoret baritone Siegfried Rudolf Frese
6th Anachoret baritone Hermann Patzalt
7th Anachoret baritone Hannes Jokel
8th Anachoret bass Anton Diakov
9th Anachoret bass Boris Carmeli
Stimme mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig
Stimme tenor Peter Schreier
Luzifer spoken Hartmut Forche
Prolog/Choir leader spoken Rolf Boysen
PrologbassJosef Greindl
Choir RIAS Kammerchor, Tölzer Knabenchor

Music

Summary/Dramatis Personae

The opera is in 3 parts, with each part having its own characters. Part I involves 9 Sibyls, represented by female singers.

Part II involves 9 Anchorites, represented by male singers

There is also a children's choir, along with a tenor section that is heard on a magnetic tape.

Part III involves the following people.

There is also a double chorus of sopranos and altos used near the end, as well as two soloists, tenor and contralto, to represent the "Vox Mundana". A children's choir is also used to represent the "Voces caelestes".

I. Die Sibyllen (The Sibyls)

  1. "Heis theós estin anarchos, hypermegéthaes, agénaetos" (A god is, without beginning, immense, unformed)
  2. "Opse theü g’aléüsi myloi" (The mills of God are late to grind)
  3. "Pasin homü nyx estin isae tois plüton echusin kai ptochois" (The same night awaits all, rich and poor)
  4. "Choneusó gar hapanta kai eis katharón dialexó" (I will melt everything down and purify it)
  5. "Vae! Ibunt impii in gehennam ignis eterni" (Woe! The impious shall enter the hell of the eternal fire)

II. Die Anachoreten (The Anchorites)

  1. "Upote, maepote, maepu, maedépote… ignis eterni immensa tormenta" (Never, never, in no place, at no time the measureless torment of the eternal fire)
  2. "Unus solus Deus ab aeterno in aeternum" (God is One alone from eternity to eternity)
  3. "Nicht Satanas... nicht Lucifer... damnatus nunquam condemnatus in aeternum" (Not Satan... not Lucifer... the damned are not condemned for eternity)
  4. "Mundus terrenus volvitur" (The terrestrial world revolves)
  5. "Wann endet die Zeit?" (When will time end?)
  6. "Gott, schenk uns Wahrsagung, Weissagung, Hellsicht im Traum. Gott, schenk uns den Traum" (God, grant us the gifts of prophecy, sagacity, clairvoyance in dreaming. God, grant us the dream.)

III. Dies illa (That Day)

  1. "Wo irren wir ihn, verloren, verlassen" (Whither do we stray, lost, abandoned)
  2. "Kyrie! Serva nos, salva nos, eripe nos!" (Lord! Help us, save us, take us away!)
  3. "Angor, timor, horror, terror ac pavor invadit omnes" (Dread, fear, horror, terror and dismay seize us all)
  4. "Omne genus daemoniorum caecorum, claudorum sive confusorum, attendite iussum meorum et vocationem verborum" (Every type of demon, blind, lame or mad, mark the command and the call of my words.)
  5. "Vae, Portae Inferi oculus aspicit nos tenebrarius tenebris" (Woe, the eye, the dark eye looks upon us, with darkness, at the gates of the underworld)
  6. "Pater peccavi" (Father, I have sinned)
  7. "Con sublima spiritualita" (With highest spirituality)

Orchestration

The music requires a very unusual, and possibly symmetrical orchestra:

The percussion section, requiring about 25 to 30 players, consists of:

The total forces used for the taped sections are

There is also one spoken part, an echo of one of the sibyls' spoken dialogue, accompanied by wind machine.

Tape sections

The music on magnetic tape is used in four different places, most notably at the end when Lucifer appears.

The first section is used in Part I, and requires the following instruments:

The second section, also used in Part I utilises the following:

The third section is used in Part II:

The fourth and final section is used towards the end of Part III. In Orff's final revision in 1981, this taped section was omitted and instead given to players in the orchestra:

1979 revision

Orff later made extensive revisions to De temporum fine comoedia with many changes in orchestration. In his 1981 revision the following instruments were added:

The following instruments were eliminated:

The modifications to the pre-recorded music consist of the addition of the following:

The omissions consisted of:

In addition to loud percussive passages, there are also as periods of calm piano and straight dialogue. In this culmination of his stage works, Orff almost abandons his diatonicism to chromaticism, which enriches and thickens the musical texture, and octatonicism.

As the play is about to finish, after the destruction of all worldly material, Satan asks for forgiveness and is restored to Angel Lucifer, thus forgiven. The unsettling chromaticism here ends and Bach's Before Thy Throne (Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit, BWV 668) strikes up in a canon from the four viols. This canon is pandiatonic and upon its completion its mirror image is stated (that is the identical material played backwards).

References

Notes

Sources

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