Moses-Fantasie

The introduction to Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera takes a detour via depictions of Moses in literature and the visual arts: from Goethe's critical examination of the biblical Exodus text to Thomas Mann's portrait of Moses with the physiognomy of Michelangelo and Sigmund Freud's peculiar interpretation of Michelangelo's horned Moses sculpture, it leads to a discussion of Schoenberg's resigned realization: "My Moses resembles Michelangelo's. He is not human at all."

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