The Omnibus

Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: Gallery

Media Credit: Grace Jeoung Laura Compton, director of opera studies, performs "Pierrot Lunaire" on Monday, March 24. Compton was accompanied by Dr. Melinda Smashey, associate professor of music. "Pierrot Lunaire" is a German monodrama written originally in French in 1884 by Albert Giroad and translated into German by Otto Erich Hartleben in 1911. Arnold Schoenberg wrote background music for the 21 poem piece in 1912.

voice and director of opera studies, and Dr. Melinda Smashey, associate professor of music brought Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire, Op.21" to life on Monday, March 24 in Meyer Recital Hall.
The evening began with a pre-performance lecture about the origins of "Peirrot Lunaire" given by Compton.
As early as the 15th century groups of traveling performers called the Comedia dell'arte were traveling through Italy. They were improvisational groups having no formal scripts or memorized scenes. The groups were made of specific character types whose personification was played to the extreme. One of these character types was that of Pierrot's.
Pierrot was an excessively simplistic character that was easily tricked by smarter characters and easily driven to anger. He was a sad clown dressed in all white with red lips and occasionally players would cut their mouths to make their expressions more dynamic. Pierrot can be easily identified with Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.
In 1884 Albert Giroud wrote the 21 poems of Pierrot Lunaire in French. In 1911 Otto Erich Hartleben translated it into German. Schoenberg was commissioned by a German performer to compose background music for the poems, and in 1912, he agreed and made the poems into a monodrama.
The story does not follow a clear plot but appears to be a sequence of disassociated dreams, expressed in color and moods.
The performance is not to be sung nor spoken but each individual word is to be pronounced in a specific way. Compton did an amazing job of focusing on each word and creating a sound that is very rare.
The instrumentals were very enticing as well. Smashey played the piano part. Kristen Weingartner, instructor of Violin at College of the Ozarks, accompanied on both the violin and viola. Allison Storochuck, associate professor of clarinet at Missouri State University, played the parts of the clarinet and bass clarinet. Jill Heyboer, associate professor of music at Missouri State University, played the part of the flute and piccolo. Peter Rho, a junior at Missouri State University, played the part of the cello. Dr. Amy Muchnick, professor of violin and conductor of chamber orchestra at Missouri State University, conducted the performance.
The performance was made of three parts of seven songs a piece. Each song was announced on a projector behind the performers to help the audience follow the performance.
Compton performed the piece in German, but the audience was provided with English translations of each poem.
The amount of work that each individual put into the performance was obvious while watching their extreme focus and hearing the pieces come together.
While it is hard to understand the musical value and stature of "Pierrot Lunaire" it was easy to appreciate the amount of care each performer was giving to their individual parts. By pushing the boundaries of what is familiar, "Pierrot Lunaire" shows expressionism for what it is meant to be.
Compton's care for how each word was pronounced could be heard and made the performance that much better.
Compton and Smashey did a wonderful job of bringing Schoenberg's Pierrot to life.

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