Berg's Wozzeck
Andreas Homoki (stage director), Fabio Luisi (music director) – With Christian Gerhaher (Wozzeck), Gun-Brit Barkmin (Marie)...
Thank you for your understanding.
Cast
Andreas Homoki — Stage director
Michael Levine — Set and costume design
Franck Evin — Lighting designer
Kathrin Brunner — Dramaturgy
Christian Gerhaher — Wozzeck
Gun-Brit Barkmin — Marie
Brandon Jovanovich — Drum Major
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke — Captain
Lars Woldt — Doctor
Mauro Peter — Andres
Irène Friedli — Margret
Pavel Daniluk — First Apprentice
Cheyne Davidson — Second Apprentice
Martin Zysset — Mad Max
Alessandro Reinhart — Maries's Child
Chorus & Children's Choir of the Opernhaus Zürich
Program notes
“This Wozzeck, even more spectacular than Tcherniakov’s powerful vision, was one of the strongest artistic gestures of 2015. You should see it on film as soon as possible, a production that from now on is considered the touchstone performance of one of opera history's seminal works.” (Tutti Magazine) What higher praise can there be for this production of Berg’s celebrated opera? The masterpiece of 20th-century musical drama, Wozzeck is adapted from Büchner’s unfinished 1837 play, a dark tale inspired by a true story. The poor Wozzeck—a simple soldier whose only joy in life is his devotion to his lover Marie—progressively sinks into madness and commits the ultimate and unthinkable act...
Deeply moved by the destiny of the real Woyzeck, an old soldier condemned for having stabbed his mistress, Büchner wanted to use his play to condemn society as bearing the true responsibility for the soldier’s “criminality”. Berg builds on this vision, opening his opera with the captain’s admonishing his subordinate for having fathered a child outside of wedlock. Wozzeck responds that it is easier to be honest when one has money. To illustrate this tragic social determinism, Andreas Homoki recasts the opera’s protagonists as marionettes, each playing his role and perceiving his social status as an unavoidable destiny. A true story and unforgettable drama transformed into a fable musical for the ages.
Photo: Monika Rittershaus
