NOTES BY CARL CUNNINGHAM | WOZZECK IN CONCERT | MARCH 1-2 WOZZECK, OPUS 7 Alban Berg (1885-1935) Recording Pierre Boulez conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Paris National Opera; Walter Berry (Wozzeck), Isabel Strauss (Marie), Fritz Uhl (Drum Major), Albert Weikenmeier (Captain), Carl Doench (Doctor) (Sony) Instrumentation four flutes (all doubling piccolo), four oboes (one doubling English horn), four clarinets (two doubling E-flat clarinets), bass clarinet,
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three bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, four trumpets, four trombones, tuba, two pairs of timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, piano, accordion, guitar and strings
T
he insanity-fueled tragedy of murder-suicide, leaving children orphaned or also dead, has become a constant occurrence on television and in real life. It is a tragedy that has been documented throughout the pages of human history. One similar instance involved the former
soldier and Leipzig barber, Johann Christian Woyzeck, who murdered his allegedly unfaithful mistress in 1821. At his trial, medical testimony that he suffered hallucinations was rejected by the court, and he was executed three years later, causing a terrible protest. In 1825, details of the controversial case were published and became the basis of a theatrical sketch written by 24-year-old Georg Büchner, son of a Darmstadt physician, in 1837, the last year of the young playwright’s life. After two painstaking efforts to publish and revise a complete edition of Büchner’s works over the next 72 years, the 25-scene theatrical sketch was reduced to a threeact, 15-scene opera by Alban Berg between 1914 and 1921. A misspelling of the title character’s name, as Wozzeck in the literary edition, was retained in Berg’s opera. Wozzeck was completed at a crucial moment in Berg’s career and in history. As a prominent member of the Second Viennese School of composers (along with Schoenberg and Webern), he had already embraced an atonal musical idiom—but applied it far more freely and expressively than the other two composers. Already in his 30s, he was proving to be an especially gifted vocal composer. And Berg’s musical drama of an impoverished, abused and ridiculed soldier also reflected the experience of the defeated, disillusioned German and Austrian people at the end of World War I. The opera is remarkably compact, lasting barely 90 minutes, and it is often performed without intermission. Such was the case when former Houston Symphony music director Lawrence Foster conducted a deeply moving stage production of the work in Jones Hall for the Houston Grand Opera in 1982. Act One introduces all the main characters. Wozzeck, who takes on extra jobs to support his mistress, Marie, and their child, is seen shaving the pompous Captain, who reproaches him for his immoral life. “We poor people” (“Wir arme Leut”), Wozzeck cries out. “If I were a gentleman with a hat, watch and eyeglass, I could be virtuous.” This remark serves as the keynote for the tragic events that follow, and its melodic line serves as the leading musical motif throughout the opera. In the second scene, Wozzeck is gathering firewood with a friend, Andres, when he has a hallucination about the meaning of the fiery sunset. In Scene Three, Marie secretly lusts after the handsome Drum Major, while singing a bitter lullaby to their illegitimate child. In Scene Four, a Doctor uses Wozzeck