Alban Berg: Wozzeck

Vladimir Jurowski conducts William Kentridge’s production of Wozzeck at the Salzburg Festival featuring Matthias Goerne, Mauro Peter & Asmik Grigorian.

Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” is one of the 20th century’s groundbreaking operas alongside Berg’s Lulu. Based on Georg Büchner’s drama fragment “Woyzeck”, the action is quite straightforward: A simple soldier is harassed by everyone until finally turning brutally violent. In showing the abuse of power by society's elite and the misery of the common people, Berg portrays a society in which everyone is lost. We are faced with one of the oldest devices known to drama, a love triangle – except that the sides fail to meet. The priapic Drum Major is thoroughly self-absorbed; Marie is helpless in her attraction to him; and the real love in the piece, between Marie and Wozzeck, seems largely a thing of the past.

Universal artist William Kentridge makes one of his rare appearances as an opera director and will for the first time stage an opera in Salzburg. The South African-born artist is known for combining drawing, animation, filmmaking, and collage. As one of the world’s most preeminent visual artists, his work has been the subject of major gallery shows and museum retrospectives around the world.

The Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski will take the rostrum of the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor. The title role will be sung by the celebrated bariton Matthias Goerne alongside John Daszak as the Drum Major, Asmik Grigorian as Marie and Mauro Peter as Andres.