Wozzeck by Alban Berg
Opera Australia at State Theatre
November 11, 16, 22, 25, 28, 2000
Reviewer: Kate Herbert
The score of Alban Berg's 1925 opera, Wozzeck, crawls
inside the tormented mind of the soldier, Wozzeck. (Jonathan Summers)
The score rises and falls
like a roller-coaster with the chaos of Wozzek's escalating madness and
culminates in his murdering his lover, Marie. (Margaret Medlyn)
Berg's libretto is based
on Georg Buchner's powerful but incomplete play, Woyzek, from 1837 which in
turn was based on a real murder in Leipzig in 1821.
His music is
extraordinary, making this one of the 20th century masterpieces. Berg, a pupil
of Shonberg, worked in an atonal 12 note form but also employs eclectic musical
forms and borrows from or satirises other composers.
Buchner's play has 27
episodes. Berg uses 15 scenes in three acts. Adding to his moving music is the
spare language, passionate outbursts by characters in recitative and song, as
well as the ridicule and oppression of the poor, simple, deluded soldier.
The outcome is a moving
representation of Wozzeck's moral, physical and mental breakdown leading to the
murder of his lover.
Director, Barrie Kosky,
creates a visual and emotional landscape. He places the orchestra on stage and
the action on a steeply raked, uncluttered floor over the orchestra pit.
Peter Corrigan's vivid,
grotesque design comprises huge German Expressionist images rising like
nightmares from hell. A plastic rubbish bin is the only prop.
The music swells under
the exceptional conductorship of Gabor Otvos. The score carries us along in a
flood of emotion culminating in the sustained natural B crescendo when
Wozzeck's mind collapses.
Summers performance and
voice as Wozzeck are commanding and his characterisation is impeccable and
sophisticated. As Marie, Medlyn is impassioned and sympathetic and her role is
beautifully sung.
Wozzeck's tormentors, the
Doctor and Captain, are sung with relish and humour by Barry Mora and Richard
Greager . The featured cast is delightful and includes Adrian McEniery, Horst
Hoffmann, Tyrone Landau Jennifer Birmingham , Warwick Fyfe and Roger Howell .
Kosky's beer garden party
looks like an insane Sydney Mardi Gras complete with leather outfits and
half-naked revellers. The children's chorus appears decked in Christmas tinsel
and the Idiot (Landau) is a street clown.
There are no flaws in
this production. It is relentless both musically and emotionally. The tension
soars with the music and the final image of Wozzeck's tiny son crawling inside
a rubbish bin after the death of both his parents, is poignant.
By Kate Herbert
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