Der Mond

How did the moon actually get in the sky? A long time ago, four boys stole it from a tree and took it with them down into the underworld. St. Peter took pity on the beautiful orb and hung it up in the sky, well out of the reach of thieves.

It was the Brothers Grimm, with their rich collection of children’s and household tales, who provided the text for Carl Orff ’s work originally intended for the puppet theatre. Orff’s text went far beyond the original story – particularly in the scene in the underworld in which the diction and language of the text are reminiscent of Bertolt Brecht.

Subtitled ‘small world theatre’, the work alternates between farce and mystery play, comedy and tragedy, grotesquery and demonic masquerade. The three locations of the plot – the sky, the earth and the underworld – should be simultaneously visible onstage according to Orff’s concept. The music for Der Mond, which the composer considered as his ‘farewell to Romanticism’, was developed from the world of ideas and music of his educational concept Schulwerk. In the reduced version by Friedrich K. Wanek, Der Mond is also a rewarding challenge for school ensembles with experience in musical and theatrical Performance.