Analysis
Pierrot Lunaire is a work that contains many paradoxes: the instrumentalists, for example, are soloists and an orchestra at the same time; Pierrot is both the hero and the fool, acting in a drama that is also a concert piece, performing cabaret as high art and vice versa with song that is also speech; and his is a male role sung by a woman, who shifts between the first and third persons.
It is also a work which can be interpreted through the sixth song "Madonna". In this song the only person who could save Pierrot, Jesus, is presented as dead. After a brief period of sorrow in "Der kranke Mond" Pierrot in Part II of the song cycle becomes more depraved in his exploits and by the end is crucified for his sins in "Die Kreuze". Hoping to redeem himself in Part III, Pierrot tries to go back to previous persona as the "old pantomime from Italy" but utimately fails without much hope of redemption by the end of the work.
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