Director, Deborah Warner; Set Designer, Hyemi Shin; Costume Designer, Nicky Gillibrand; Lighting Designer, Adam Silverman; Choreographer, Kim Brandstrup. Cast: Wozzeck, Christian Gerhaher; Marie, Anja Kampe; Captain, Peter Hoare; Doctor, Brindley Sherratt; Margret, Rosie Aldridge; Drum Major, Clay Hilley; Andres, Sam Furness; First Apprentice, Barnaby Rea; Second Apprentice, Alex Otterburn; The Fool, John Findon. Conductor, Sir Antonio Pappano.
I think I’m right in saying I’ve heard this work only once before live. This was the previous ROHCG production in 2013, with Simon Keenlyside as Wozzeck, and Karita Mattila as Marie, conducted in the previous Keith Warner production by Mark Elder. This, a new production by Deborah Warner (who I once spent a week with in the 80’s haring around Egypt in a bus touring a Shakespeare production she was directing), was a very absorbing and intense performance. Having just listened to 11 Mahler-only concerts it was very interesting to hear the similarities and differences in this work to Mahler – the use of a wide variety of styles, including a dance band, military music and a honky-tonk piano, plus using a huge orchestra are points of similarity; the basic atonal idiom is obviously different but at times of high drama like the last two transition passages we could be listening to Mahler’s 11th – or maybe 12th – symphony had he lived to write them.
It’s a very bleak work – like Peter Grimes (the links between the two works are obvious when you think about it, including both central figures drowning, and powerful orchestral interludes) it’s the story of someone who is inherently a poet but unable to express himself and who is living a miserable and squalid life. That needs to be reflected in the stage design. The visionary part was very convincing – the blood red moon looming at the back of the stage, and the row of dead leafless trees. The bleakness was well conveyed by the movable stage blocks conveying the essentials of Wozzeck’s house, the doctor’s surgery, street scenes and so forth as well as the use of the entire stage at key moments such as Marie’s killing. However the mechanism used to effect the frequent scene changes seemed rather overcomplicated – while the revolving disk centre stage worked well the various screens moving up and down seemed fussy. One of the screens was in some way slanted so that shadows of blocks and people could be seen moving across quite a wide section of the stage, which was interesting, but overall this use of screens seemed at times fussy and distracting. Costumes were grey and black except for Wozzeck and Marie.
The personen-regie was very good indeed and made the 100 minutes or so fly by – I totally believed in these characters and the horror and injustice of their lives. The injustices though are individual – people not caring for each other – rather than the communal focus of Peter Grimes. This makes the need for credible acting all the more important, and all those involved achieved this. Christian Gerhaher was outstanding as Wozzeck, his shuffling walk the epitome of a down-trodden overburdened man. His career as primarily a lieder singer meant he offered us exceptionally clear diction, and beautifully nuanced singing – for example his singing of the fragments of the Lord’s prayer. Anja Kampe was equally convincing as Marie. I was interested to hear Clay Hilley as the Drum Major – he has been Berlin’s Siegfried recently and stood in for the first cycle Gotterdammerung Siegfried at Bayreuth last year – it sounds as though he would be impressive in that role. In the lesser roles Peter Hoares and Brindley Sherrard were particularly as the Captain and Doctor.
The orchestra sounded wonderful under Pappano – the last 10 minutes or so of the performance were remarkable in their intensity
John's musical journey 