Wozzeck overview – A Grim Story on the Royal Opera

This grim however highly effective opera has a wierd historical past.

It began life as a stage play written in 1836 by the German dramatist George Büchner primarily based on the true story of Johann Christian Woyzeck who had been publicly beheaded in 1821 for murdering his mistress who was the mom of his baby.

Büchner died younger and by no means accomplished the play, however his virtually full manuscript was taken up by others and eventually staged in Munich in 1913.

Its title was modified from ‘Woyzeck’ to ‘Wozzeck’ in error via problem in deciphering Büchner’s small and spidery handwriting.

The theme of the play is that of a dim and poor soldier who’s bullied by his superiors and compelled to do quite a lot of menial jobs and to earn a bit more money by volunteering to take part in experiments carried out by an bold physician.

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In 1922, the Austrian composer Alban Berg noticed the distress of the play’s predominant character pushed to insanity and homicide as an illustration of the plight of the widespread soldier within the First World War.

His opera Wozzeck had its premiere in Berlin in 1925 and retains a plot very near that of Büchner’s play, in addition to the misspelling of Woyzeck’s title.

Berg’s atonal music, nonetheless, provides significantly to the depth of the piece and even virtually a century later, its mixture of tunelessness and dramatic energy makes it nonetheless not simple to hearken to.

Deborah Warner’s new manufacturing begins in a males’s bathroom which instantly units the squalid scene.

Several characters use the urinals which the hapless soldier Wozzeck subsequently cleans. This establishes the character of his downtrodden existence, which is emphasised by the bullying therapy he receives from the captain, excellently performed and sung by British tenor Peter Hoare, and the physician, splendidly portrayed with utter heartlessness by British bass Brindley Sherratt.

As if these two weren’t brutal sufficient, Wozzeck is crushed up by his colleagues and his mistress and mom of his son has an affair with the Drum Major.

The complete forged cope excellently with the nice calls for posed by Berg’s music, all brilliantly held collectively by an outstanding efficiency of the title position by German bass-baritone Christian Gerhaher.

The dramatic music is beautifully performed by Antonio Pappano who coaxes a strong efficiency from the Covent Garden orchestra, completely matching the depth of the motion on the stage.

I’m uncertain what the ethical is that we’re anticipated to see on this opera.

Perhaps it’s merely a tragic story of a mainly good man descending into violence and eventual suicide by the callous disregard and abusive coldness of these round him.

Some merely see Wozeck as a message that we must always all be kinder to our fellow people, however the deeper lesson is that private ambition and self-importance are fertile breeding grounds for cruelty.

• Box Office: roh.org.uk or 020 7304 4000 (tickets from £15 to £160 varied dates till 7 June).