Wozzeck is philosophy. It was just that as a play by Büchner, and it's even better when scored by Alban Berg, one of the greatest 20th century composers. The thing that lifts Berg above his teacher, Schönberg and his fellow pupil Webern is the true emotion he is able to bring to his scores. In my opinion, Wozzeck is among the most brilliant opera's ever written.
'Wozzeck' follows a thirty-something soldier named Wo(y)zzeck (deftly performed by Grundheber), who is, at the beginning of the piece, not yet a discarded member of society, but as his wife, Marie, cheats on him, his family is beyond poorness and both his army superior and a psychotic doctor who uses him as a guinea pig terrorize his life, he easily becomes one. Wozzeck is a hard-working and loving husband and father, but can't cope with the dark side humanity seems to make him carry all on his own. This ultimately makes him brutally kill his wife during a walk to the city, in his situation, he couldn't do else. At this point, Wozzeck has turned from a normal man to a dangerous madman. He arrives at an inn, where he's persuited for murder, before he goes back to the murder scene, totally confused about the death of his wife, his guilt and the wish not to be prosecuted. He drowns himself in one of the most intense scenes ever seen in musical theater. The ultimate ending, with Marie's son and his friends playing around, is beyond eerie.
The music, one needs to know before visiting or seeing the opera is composed nearly apart from the acting and text. The first act consists of 5 character pieces, the second is a 5 movement symphony and the third is a set of 5 inventions. These acts are only coherent within themselves. The character pieces match closely, as the symphony does (it's really formed like a symphony), the inventions are also equally formed. The brilliantness of this opera is that it's not bound to a certain technique, just to Berg's style; some parts are tonal, some freely atonal, some dodecaphonic, which makes the whole even greater than the sum of its parts.
Wozzeck, especially in this brilliant interpretation, with the most amazing cast, the most eerie staging and expressionistic figures I have ever seen, with Claudio Abbaddo, one of the best conductors ever, holding the baton, this performance is disturbing, eerie and even frightening at times (it reminded me of the DVD of the original staging of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street). This people, is an example of greatness in more than a nutshell. It's greatness in a mango.
'Wozzeck' follows a thirty-something soldier named Wo(y)zzeck (deftly performed by Grundheber), who is, at the beginning of the piece, not yet a discarded member of society, but as his wife, Marie, cheats on him, his family is beyond poorness and both his army superior and a psychotic doctor who uses him as a guinea pig terrorize his life, he easily becomes one. Wozzeck is a hard-working and loving husband and father, but can't cope with the dark side humanity seems to make him carry all on his own. This ultimately makes him brutally kill his wife during a walk to the city, in his situation, he couldn't do else. At this point, Wozzeck has turned from a normal man to a dangerous madman. He arrives at an inn, where he's persuited for murder, before he goes back to the murder scene, totally confused about the death of his wife, his guilt and the wish not to be prosecuted. He drowns himself in one of the most intense scenes ever seen in musical theater. The ultimate ending, with Marie's son and his friends playing around, is beyond eerie.
The music, one needs to know before visiting or seeing the opera is composed nearly apart from the acting and text. The first act consists of 5 character pieces, the second is a 5 movement symphony and the third is a set of 5 inventions. These acts are only coherent within themselves. The character pieces match closely, as the symphony does (it's really formed like a symphony), the inventions are also equally formed. The brilliantness of this opera is that it's not bound to a certain technique, just to Berg's style; some parts are tonal, some freely atonal, some dodecaphonic, which makes the whole even greater than the sum of its parts.
Wozzeck, especially in this brilliant interpretation, with the most amazing cast, the most eerie staging and expressionistic figures I have ever seen, with Claudio Abbaddo, one of the best conductors ever, holding the baton, this performance is disturbing, eerie and even frightening at times (it reminded me of the DVD of the original staging of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street). This people, is an example of greatness in more than a nutshell. It's greatness in a mango.
