Opera

Berg's Wozzeck

Andreas Homoki (stage director), Fabio Luisi (music director) – With Christian Gerhaher (Wozzeck), Gun-Brit Barkmin (Marie)...

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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

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