Wozzeck

Opernring 1

1010 Wien

 

Alban Berg's Wozzeck tells the story of a tormented creature who, beset by visions and fears, ridiculed and tormented by society, is driven out of existence - until the final catastrophe occurs and the victim also becomes a perpetrator.

The worldwide success of Wozzeck is based not least on the expressionist emotionality of the music, which is late Romantic in its basic attitude - even though the composer had already overcome traditional tonality. Alban Berg also succeeded in anchoring something deeply Austrian in the music of Wozzeck , a musical dialect, so to speak, which is characterized by typical Austrian dance forms such as the ländler, waltz, march and polka. (Franz Welser-Möst)

In 1914, Alban Berg saw a performance of Georg Büchner's Woyzeck at the Vienna Kammerspiele and was so impressed by what he saw that he immediately thought of setting the material to music. For the libretto, which Berg wrote himself, he selected scenes from the original, rearranged and shortened them. The musical conception essentially took place at the same time. However, the First World War and other commitments prevented him from making rapid progress and so the particell was not finalized until 1921 and the score not until 1922. parts of the opera were performed in concert in Frankfurt in 1924, the actual premiere took place on December 14, 1925 at the Lindenoper in Berlin, and five years later the Vienna State Opera finally staged the Viennese premiere. The current production celebrated its premiere in 2022.

(Source: wiener-staatsoper.at)