What Bayreuth is to Wagner, Bavarian Andechs is to Carl Orff. The annual Orff Festspiele has been taking place here since 1998. The monastery where this festival takes place is not only Orff's final resting place, but also that of one of the main characters in his musical theater work Die Bernauerin (1946): Duke Albrecht III. This Bavarian nobleman was secretly married to Agnes Bernauer, daughter
… of the local bath attendant. Albrecht's father, reigning Duke Ernst, did not like this mixture of estates. He therefore accused Agnes of witchcraft and then let her drown in the Danube. Albrecht founded the Andechs Monastery as a reconciliation for this atrocity. History and present coincide completely in this live recording of Die Bernauerin from Andechs. In accordance with Orff's wish, the cast consists largely of singing actors, all of which express themselves in genuine Bavarian dialect. Together with Astutuli, Die Bernauerin therefore forms the diptych of Orff's so-called 'Bairisches Welttheater', with which, just as in the famous Carmina Burana, he strives for a synthesis of music, language and movement. Music theater that you should see, even more than with Wagner. Hopefully the rest of Orff's music theater work will follow soon on DVD. (JWvR)more
