This
opera presents the descent into
madness of the soldier Wozzeck who is the subject of a heartless
military experiment where he is fed only
beans as the
doctor observes the effect of his restricted
diet on his
mental disintegration.
Alban Berg (1885 - 1935) started to write his opera Wozzek after seeing the play by Georg Büchner (called Woyzeck) in 1914, but because of
World War I, it wasn't finished until 1922 and first produced in 1925. The simple plot is built around Wozzek who murders his cheating
girlfriend, Marie, and commits
suicide, while their child, unable to comprehend the
tragedy, plays nearby.
The
music, however, is anything but simple with its rich
mixture of
styles, ranging from the post-
romantic to the purely
atonal serial music of his teacher
Arnold Schoenberg. Adding
popular and
folk elements to the mix, the
composer removes any
comfortable framework the
listener might need to create the
illusion of
stability in the work. Still, Berg provided a
subliminal center in his use of
classical musical structures: the first act is a collection of 5 pieces representing
aspects of Wozzeck's
persona in
relation to other
characters in his
life; the second is a
symphony in five movements, and the third act is a series of five
variations set on different
ostinatos.
Neither the
plot nor an account of the musical form conveys the sheer power of the opera that left me completely drained after seeing it. From the first scene where Wozzek shaves the doctor (Langsam, Wozzeck, Langsam! (Slowly, Wozzeck, Slowly) to the first
scene in act three where Wozzeck, in a
Sprechgesang, moans "Blut! Blut" (Blood! Blood!), the listener has watched and felt
madness descend: the last
connection with
reality has snapped. In total contrast, the last scene presents their child alone on stage,
innocent of what has happened, singing "Hop Hop!"
Reference: http://www.excite.com/entertainment/fine_arts/classical_music/composers/20th_century/atonal/berg_alban/?search=wozzek