Wozzeck, Johannes Martin Kränzle; Drum Major, Dmitry Golovnin; Captain, Jörg Schneider; Doctor, Dmitry Belosselskiy; Marie, Marlis Petersen. Conductor, Franz Welser-Möst; Director, Simon Stone; Designer, Bob Cousins; Costumes, Alice Babidge; Lighting, James Farncombe
I spent an interesting morning at the Central Cemetery visiting musical graves – found after a bit of an effort on my part but most of them are actually in one place. I did discover for bonus points Hans Pfiitzner and Franz Schmidt who are not in the same composer area (denizens include Beethoven., Schubert, Brahms, Mozart – allegedly – Hugo Wolf, Johan Strauss and Suppe), though they were fairly nearby. Interestingly I passed through on the tram to get to the Cemetery the area called Simmering, which features in this Staatsoper production as a working class district (which is, from what I saw of it from the tram).
Wozzeck was first performed in late 1925 at the Berlin Staatsoper, so is just over 100 years old this year. This particular production was first seen in Vienna in 2022, and is set in modern-day Vienna amongst the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised and dispossessed who are exploited, persecuted by a society they curse and blame for their troubles – and in Wozzeck’s case to the extent of damaging his mental health. Wozzeck is not a work I know that well – it’s not a piece for late night listening on earphones – and in fact I only really remember the details of what happens, and how the music sounds, from the live performances I’ve heard. It’s possibly I heard a performance in the 70’s but more recently I have only heard two – both at Covent Garden: in 2013 , conducted by Mark Elder and the title role sung by Simon Keenlyside; and 2023, conducted by Pappano, with Christian Gerhaher as Wozzeck. I remember particularly Gerhaher’s lyricism in the role.
One of the things which struck me about this Vienna production is that some of the casting was odd. Marlis Petersen was excellent and, as she has to be, was sexy and looked the part. But Dmitry Golovnin was scarcely a bear of a man, as described in the libretto, nor was his voice strong in the way I’ve heard it performed live before (one of the productions I saw had Clay Hilley in this role, a large man now singing heldentenor roles). Rather more worryingly, Johannes Martin Kränzle, an artist I have heard in different roles and always admired, looked far too unflustered and calm and ordinary throughout to be a convincing Wozzeck. Perhaps a Mr Prufrock, but Prufrock never has to do degrading jobs or go mad – Kränzle looked and sounded much the same at the end as he did at the beginning. This seemed misconceived. The other main roles – Doctor, Captain, Martha – were all well taken and sung. In general I wasn’t very convinced that the comments about social justice I’ve made above were really brought out in the production, in any concerted way.
The performance had no interval, lasting about 95 minutes. The sets were effective enough – for most of the performance there were three sides of a room on a revolving set, always white in colour, representing Simmering station, Marie’s house, the barbers and doctor’s house, a gym, a street with a wurst stall (with a sideline in schapps) and a bar. Towards the end the 3 sided rooms were removed and replaced by a beautifully realistic hill, with grass and flowers, where Wozzeck kills Marie, Wozzeck is found hanged and Marie’s boy plays by himself at the end.
I am sure, with Welser-Most in charge, that this was the 1st division VPO we had this evening and they played superbly for him, with a huge dynamic range and searing passion in the final interlude.
But in my limited experience this is not a work that you can simply push aside in your memory when it’s given a less than wholly excellent rendition – if a performance of this work is beyond just competent (and this was much, much more than that) the experience is gripping, it is hard to watch, and tonight the artists combined to keep me completely engrossed in the unfolding story and the music, whatever my reservations in thinking about the event afterwards
John's musical journey 