Review: Wozzeck (Lyric Opera of Chicago)

  
  
Wozzeck 

Written by Alban Berg  
Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker (map)
thru Nov 21 | tix: $29-$129  | more info
  
Check for half-price tickets  
  

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Expressionist design, avant-garde score make this a trip to Hellish time and place

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents

Wozzeck

Review by John Olson

Alban Berg’s opera is based on the unfinished play Woyzeck written by Gerhard Buchner in 1837, but based on actual events that occurred in 1821 – roughly 100 years before Berg finished Wozzeck. Despite the gap between the creation of the source material and the creation of this opera, which Berg wrote between 1914 and 1922, Berg’s opera seems to reflect the mood of Germany between the wars. Following the country’s defeat in the First World War, Germany was forced to pay reparations of astronomical amounts. Unimaginable hyperinflation followed, reducing the buying power of the German Mark to practically nothing as well as reducing many of its citizenry to poverty. It was a time of hopelessness for many, a feeling which inhabits Berg’s short opera which tells of the despair and ultimate defeat of a common soldier and his lover.

Franz Wozzeck is unmarried and lives on a military base, but has a family of sorts – his mistress Marie and their son (played by Zachary Uzarraga) – who live in the town nearby. He and Marie are not married, but Wozzeck views the two as his responsibility. To earn extra money for their support, he regularly submits himself to torturous “experiments” that mutilate his body for pay. Though Wozzeck’s life is grim, he has the determination to make what little he can of it by caring as he is able for this makeshift family. Marie, frequently alone with their tiny son, has a wandering eye, and makes the mistake of flirting with an ostentatious drum major of the nearby military company. The Drum Major forces himself upon Marie and leaves a gift of a necklace following a sexual affair. Wozzeck becomes suspicious, but before long the Drum Major taunts Wozzeck, flaunting his affair with Marie and humiliating Wozzeck physically as well as emotionally. He is deprived of even the slightest amount of pride or humanity by the treatment of the Drum Major, and to a lesser degree, the army officers and the mad doctor who conducts the experiments.

Berg’s opera and this staging by Sir David McVicar are unrelenting in their depiction of this despair. The score is mostly atonal and unmelodic, but somehow surprisingly accessible and engaging even as it is astonishing. It’s music that would surely stand up to and even demand repeat listening. Here, the complex orchestrations sound wonderful as performed by the Lyric Opera orchestra under conductor Sir Andrew Davis’ baton. The challenging score is sung superbly – most notably by the Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny as the barrel-chested Wozzeck. His powerful voice as well as his physical acting projects the tragic soldier’s pain. The German soprano Angela Denoke is a marvelous Marie, communicating the many complexities of the woman who is attached to Wozzeck but still allows herself to humiliate him through her infidelity and lies. The superb cast also includes the German tenors Gerhard Siegel as the callous Captain and Stefan Vinke as the cruel Drum Major; Brit Brindley Sherratt as a diabolical doctor straight out of a classic horror film mold. Americans David Portillo and Jill Grove are Wozzeck’s friend Andres and Marie’s snoopy and sarcastic neighbor Margret respectively. Though the cast of principals is relatively small, the stage is further filled with Lyric Opera’s chorus, and in the final scene, a chorus composed of members of the Chicago Children’s Choir.

  

The action is presumably set in 1920’s Germany or Austria. Though the text doesn’t specify that era, the production design is heavily influenced by German expressionist art. The set by Vicki Mortimer (who also designed the costumes) is constructed in objects of bold lines and angles – with a huge war memorial monument dominating the stage. She uses a series of curtains which are opened and closed by cast members to provide nearly seamless, cinematic scene changes.

Germany between the two World Wars must certainly have been one of the darkest times in history, but certainly there have been many others. Buchner’s era, perhaps – when he wrote his play and when the real life models for his characters lived. For many, the current era is grim – seen as a period of economic uncertainty and physical insecurity. Clearly, examples of man’s inhumanity to man persist today, and the themes of Wozzeck are universal and sadly enduring. Berg’s opera seems to suggest that cruelty is a slope humanity is inclined to slide down even as our better natures try to prevail. It’s an uncompromising and important artistic statement executed brilliantly by McVicar and Lyric Opera.

Rating: ★★★★

Wozzeck continues through November 21st at Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker (map).  Tickets are $29-$199, and are available by phone (312-827-5600) or online through their website (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at LyricOpera.org.  (Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes with no intermission)

Photos by Cory Weaver and Andrew Cioffi

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artists

cast

Gerhard Siegel (Captain), Tomasz Konieczny (Wozzeck), David Portillo (Andres), Angela Denoke (Marie), Jill Grove (Margret), Brindley Sherratt (Doctor), Stefan Vinke (Drum Major), Bradley Smoak (First Apprentice), Anthony Clark Evans (Second Apprentice), Alec Carlson (Soldier), Brenton Ryan (Fool), Zachary Uzarraga (Marie’s Son)

behind the scenes

Sir David McVicar (director), Sir Andrew Davis (conductor), Vicki Mortimer (set and costume designer), Paule Constable (lighting designer), Andrew George (choreographer), Michael Black (chorus master), Josephine Lee (children’s chorus master), Sarah Hatten (wigmaster and makeup designer), Daniel Ellis (assistant director), John W. Coleman (stage manager), Eric Weimer (stage band conductor), William C. Billingham, Jerad Mosbey, Eric Weimer (musical preparation), Susan Miller Hult (prompter), Nick Sandys (fight director), Colin Ure (projected English titles), Cory Weaver, Andrew Cioffi (photos)

  

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