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Wozzeck

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Template:Short description Template:Distinguish {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Infobox opera Wozzeck ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. Composed between 1914 and 1922, it premiered in 1925. It is based on the drama Woyzeck, which German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's play on 5 May 1914, and knew at once that he wanted to base an opera on it. (At the time, the play was still known as Wozzeck, due to an incorrect transcription by Karl Emil Franzos, who was working from a barely-legible manuscript; the correct title would not emerge until 1921.) From the fragments of unordered scenes left by Büchner, Berg selected 15 to form a compact structure of three acts with five scenes each. He adapted the libretto himself, retaining "the essential character of the play, with its many short scenes, its abrupt and sometimes brutal language, and its stark, if haunted, realism".<ref name="Walsh">Template:Harvnb</ref>

The plot depicts the everyday lives of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town. Prominent themes of militarism, callousness, social exploitation, and casual sadism are brutally and uncompromisingly presented. Toward the end of act 1, scene 2, the title character (Wozzeck) murmurs, "Still, all is still, as if the world died," with his fellow soldier Andres muttering, "Night! We must get back!" seemingly oblivious to Wozzeck's words. A funeral march begins, only to transform into the upbeat song of the military marching band in the next scene. Musicologist Glenn Watkins considers this "as vivid a projection of impending world doom as any to come out of the Great War".<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref>

Historical backgroundEdit

File:Georg Büchner - Franzos-Werkausgabe !04.jpg
Georg Büchner, illustration in a French edition of his complete works (1879).

Berg began writing Wozzeck in 1914, shortly before World War I began and delayed his work. He was never stationed on the front lineTemplate:Sfn and sought the rank of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Lit), which he obtained in 1916, for its shorter term of service. His pained determination to complete the opera is documented in letters and notebooks. He wrote his wife Template:Ill, "For months I haven't done any work on Wozzeck. Everything suffocated. Buried!"<ref name=":0" />

Berg had more time to work on regiment leave (1917–1918). Much of the opera was composed at the piano in Helene's Trahütten family cottage during {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("summer holiday").Template:Sfn He nurtured his creativity there by reading books, walking through the forests, collecting mushrooms, and admiring the mountains, lakes, and springs—habits of a "love of nature" that Helene identified in Berg's music, including that of Wozzeck.Template:Sfn

Berg's experience of the war shaped the opera in many ways.Template:Sfn News of the ongoing war troubled him.Template:Sfn He wrote Schoenberg of a reportedly "'successful' ruse" in which the sound of a bell, perhaps reminding soldiers of a "past time" or "beloved place", was used to bait and kill them:Template:Sfn<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

[... A] large bell [was] fastened to a tree close to the Russian trenches [and] rung. ... Curious Russian heads [arose] for the fatal bullets. ... horrible. ... [H]ad I been declared fit ... my spirit ... would have broken.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

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{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} Berg also wrote Helene in 1918 that he identified with Wozzeck:<ref name=":1" /><templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

There is a little bit of me in his character, ... spending these war years just as dependent on people I hate, ... in chains, sick, captive, resigned, ... humiliated.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}

{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} The war also separated Berg from Schoenberg and their social circles in Vienna, affording him not only solitude, but also independence despite the trying and unusual circumstances.Template:Sfn He finished act 1 by summer 1919, act 2 in August 1921, and act 3 over the next two months.<ref name="Walsh">Template:Harvnb</ref> Finalizing orchestration over the following six months, he completed Wozzeck in April 1922.

DramaEdit

RolesEdit

Template:Sronly
Role Voice type Premiere cast, 14 December 1925
Conductor: Erich Kleiber
Wozzeck baritone Leo Schützendorf
Marie, his common-law wife soprano Sigrid Johanson
Marie's son treble Ruth Iris Witting
Captain buffo tenor Waldemar Henke
Doctor buffo bass Martin Abendroth
Drum Major heldentenor Fritz Soot
Andres, Wozzeck's friend lyric tenor Gerhard Witting
Margret, Marie's neighbor contralto Jessika Koettrik
First Apprentice deep bass Ernst Osterkamp
Second Apprentice high baritone Alfred Borchardt
Madman high tenor Marcel Noé
A Soldier baritone Leonhard Kern
Soldiers, apprentices, women, children

SynopsisEdit

Act 1Edit

Scene 1 (Suite)

Wozzeck shaves the Captain, who lectures him on the qualities of a "decent man" and taunts him for living an immoral life. Wozzeck dutifully replies, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("Yes sir, Captain") to these repeated insults. When the Captain scorns Wozzeck's having a child "without the blessing of the Church", Wozzeck argues that poverty makes virtue difficult and quotes Mark 10:14, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("Allow the little children to come to me"). Confused, the Captain asks for clarification. Wozzeck grows agitated as he explains, crying out that if the poor ever "got to Heaven, we'd all have to manufacture thunder!" to tumultuous, crackling music. The Captain abruptly tries to calm Wozzeck, conceding that he is "a decent man, only you think too much!" The tired Captain exits.

Scene 2 (Rhapsody and Hunting Song)

File:Johann Christian Woyzeck.jpg
Johann Christian Woyzeck, on whom the play is based

Wozzeck and Andres cut sticks at sunset. Andres sings a hunting song. Wozzeck experiences frightening visions and grows agitated. Andres tries to calm him.

Scene 3 (March and Lullaby)

Marie admires a military parade when Margret mocks her for her interest in the soldiers. Marie shuts the window. She sings a self-soothing lullaby to her son. Wozzeck arrives, sharing his troubling visions. He leaves without even seeing their child, much to Marie's dismay. She laments their poverty.

Scene 4 (Passacaglia)

The Doctor scolds Wozzeck for not following his strict orders, involving a restrictive diet and urine collection. He is delighted when Wozzeck's mental illness becomes apparent.

Scene 5 (Rondo)

Marie admires the Drum Major from her doorway. He makes advances, which she first rejects but then accepts after a short struggle.

Act 2Edit

Scene 1 (Sonata-Allegro)

Marie admires her earrings, a gift from the Drum Major. She bids her son to sleep. Wozzeck arrives, startling her. He asks about the earrings, and she claims she found them. He doubts that, but gives her money and leaves. Marie is wracked with guilt.

Scene 2 (Fantasia and Fugue on Three Themes)

Echoing the opening scene, the Captain urges the Doctor to slow down as they pass. The Doctor taunts the Captain with a list of frightening diagnoses for his ailments. As Wozzeck passes, they hint that Marie is unfaithful to him.

Scene 3 (Largo)

Wozzeck confronts Marie. She does not deny it. Enraged, he nearly strikes her. She stops him. "Better a knife in my belly than your hands on me," she says. Wozzeck repeats this after her, considering it.

Scene 4 (Scherzo)

Wozzeck spots Marie out dancing with the Drum Major. While soldiers sing a hunter's chorus, Andres notices Wozzeck sitting alone and asks why. An Apprentice is drunkenly preaching when an Idiot stumbles toward Wozzeck, crying, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("Joyful, ... but it reeks ... I smell blood!")

Scene 5 (Rondo)

In the barracks at night, Wozzeck cannot sleep without thinking about Marie, disturbing Andres. Wozzeck prays while everyone snores. The Drum Major enters and beats Wozzeck, who is humiliated. Some watch. Wozzeck dissociates.

Act 3Edit

Scene 1 (Invention on a Theme)

In her room at night, Marie reads from the Bible, crying out for mercy.

Scene 2 (Invention on a Single Note (B))

Wozzeck and Marie walk along a pond in the forest. Wozzeck grabs her when she tries to flee. He stabs her, declaring that if he can't have her, no one else can. A blood-red moon rises.

Scene 3 (Invention on a Rhythm)

In a tavern, Wozzeck dances with Margret. He pulls her onto his lap, insults her, and demands that she sing. As she does, people notice blood on Wozzeck. They raise alarm. Agitated and terrified, Wozzeck flees.

Scene 4 (Invention on a Hexachord)

Wozzeck tries to retrieve the knife from the pond. Hallucinating, he speaks to Marie. He has paranoid delusions about the blood-red moon telling the world about his crime. He becomes frantic and drowns in what he imagines is blood. Nearby, the Captain and Doctor are enjoying a slow walk. They shudder at the sound of someone drowning and quickly leave.

Interlude (Invention on a Key (D minor))

This interlude leads to the finale.

Scene 5 (Invention on an Eighth-Note moto perpetuo, quasi toccata)

The next morning, children play and sing in the sunny street outside Marie's door. News spreads that she is dead. They all run off to see the body. Marie's son is unaffected by the news, even after it is shouted at him. After some delay, he follows the others, oblivious.

MusicEdit

A typical performance of the work takes slightly over an hour and a half.

InstrumentationEdit

Wozzeck uses a fairly large orchestra and has three onstage ensembles in addition to the pit orchestra (a marching band in act 1, scene 3; a chamber orchestra in act 2, scene 3; and a tavern band in act 2, scene 4; an upright piano is also played in act 3, scene 3). The instrumentation is:<ref name=UE />

Pit orchestraEdit

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Woodwinds
4 flutes (all double piccolos)
4 oboes (4th doubles English horn)
Template:Hanging indent
1 bass clarinet in BTemplate:Music
3 bassoons
1 contrabassoon
Brass
4 horns in F
4 trumpets in F
4 trombones (1 alto, 2 tenor, 1 bass)
1 tuba

Template:Col-2

Percussion
4 timpani
2 bass drums (one with rute)
Template:Hanging indent
snare drum
2 tam-tams (one smaller than the other)
triangle
xylophone
Keyboards
celesta
Strings
harp
violins I and II
violas
cellos
double basses

Template:Col-end

Special groupsEdit

Marching band (act 1, scene 3):

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-3

Woodwinds
1 piccolo
2 flutes
2 oboes
2 clarinets in ETemplate:Music
2 bassoons

Template:Col-3

Brass
2 horns in F
2 trumpets in F
3 trombones
1 tuba

Template:Col-3

Percussion
bass drum with cymbals
snare drum
triangle

Template:Col-end

Berg notes that marching band members may be taken from the pit orchestra, indicating exactly where the players can leave with a footnote near the end of act 1, scene 2.

Tavern band (act 2, scene 4):

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Woodwinds
1 clarinet in C
Brass
1 bombardon in F (or tuba, if it can be muted)

Template:Col-2

Keyboard
accordion
Strings
guitar
2 fiddles (violins with steel strings)

Template:Col-end

In addition, for the Tavern scene in act 3, scene 3, Berg calls for an out-of-tune upright piano.

Chamber orchestra (act 2, scene 3):

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-2

Woodwinds
1 flute (doubling piccolo)
1 oboe,
1 English horn
1 clarinet in ETemplate:Music
1 clarinet in A
1 bass clarinet in BTemplate:Music
1 bassoon
1 contrabassoon

Template:Col-2

Brass
2 horns
Strings
2 violins
1 viola
1 violoncello
1 double bass

Template:Col-end

The instrumentation matches that of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1.

Classic formsEdit

Berg decided not to use classic operatic forms such as aria or trio. Instead, each scene is given its own inner coherence by the use of forms more commonly associated with abstract instrumental music. The second scene of act 2 (during which the Doctor and Captain taunt Wozzeck about Marie's infidelity), for instance, consists of a prelude and triple fugue. The fourth scene of act 1, focusing on Wozzeck and the Doctor, is a passacaglia.

The scenes of the third act move beyond these structures and adopt novel strategies. Each scene is a set of variations, but not necessarily on a melody. Thus, scene two is a variation on a single note, BTemplate:Music, which is heard continuously in the scene, and the only note heard in the powerful orchestral crescendos at the end of act 3, scene 2. Scene 3 is a variation on a rhythmic pattern, with every major thematic element constructed around this pattern. Scene 4 is a variation on a chord, used exclusively for the whole scene. The following orchestral interlude is a freely composed passage firmly grounded in D minor. Finally, the last scene is a moto perpetuo, a variation on a single rhythm (the quaver).

The table below summarizes the dramatic action and forms as prepared by Fritz Mahler.Template:Sfn

Drama Music
Expositions Act 1 Five character pieces
Wozzeck and the Captain Scene 1 Suite
Wozzeck and Andres Scene 2 Rhapsody
Wozzeck and Marie Scene 3 Military March and Lullaby
Wozzeck and the Doctor Scene 4 Passacaglia
Marie and the Drum Major Scene 5 Andante affettuoso (quasi Rondo)
Dramatic development Act 2 Symphony in five movements
Marie and her child, later Wozzeck Scene 1 Sonata movement
The Captain and the Doctor, later Wozzeck Scene 2 Fantasia and fugue
Marie and Wozzeck Scene 3 Largo
Garden of a tavern Scene 4 Scherzo
Guard room in the barracks Scene 5 Rondo con introduzione
Catastrophe and epilogue Act 3 Six inventions
Marie and her child Scene 1 Invention on a theme
Marie and Wozzeck Scene 2 Invention on a note (BTemplate:Music)
Tavern Scene 3 Invention on a rhythm
Death of Wozzeck Scene 4 Invention on a hexachord
Interlude Invention on a key (D minor)
Children playing Scene 5 Invention on a regular quaver movement

LeitmotifsEdit

The opera uses a variety of musical techniques to create unity and coherence. The first is leitmotifs. As with most examples of this method, each leitmotif is used in a much subtler manner than being directly attached to a character or object. Still, motifs for the Captain, the Doctor and the Drum Major are very prominent. Wozzeck is clearly associated with two motifs, one often heard as he rushes on or off stage, the other more languidly expressing his misery and helplessness in the face of the pressures he experiences. Marie is accompanied by motifs that express her sensuality, as when she accepts a pair of earrings from the Drum Major. A motif not linked to a physical object is the pair of chords that close each act, used in an oscillating repetition until they almost blur into one another.

The most significant is the "anguish" motif first sung by Wozzeck in the first scene with the Captain, to the words {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("we poor folks"). Tracing out a minor chord with added major seventh, it is frequently heard as the signal of the characters' inability to transcend their situation.

Template:Block indent

Berg also reuses motifs from set pieces heard earlier in the opera to give insight into characters' thoughts. For example, the reappearance of military band music in the last scene of act 1 informs the audience that Marie is musing on the Drum Major's attractiveness.

An almost imperceptible leitmotif is the single pitch B, symbolizing the murder. It is first heard Template:Serif at the very end of act 2, after Wozzeck's humiliation, after his words "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("one after another"), and grows increasingly insistent during the murder scene, with Marie's last cry for help a two-octave jump from B5 to B3, until after the murder, when the whole orchestra explodes through a prolonged crescendo on this note, first in unison on B3, then spread across the whole range of the orchestra in octaves.

Expressionism and other elementsEdit

Berg's expressionist music emphasizes Wozzeck's and other characters' emotions and thought processes, particularly Wozzeck's madness and alienation. Though atonal, it does not always eschew conventional function in its voice leading, extended tonicizations, or arguably tonal passages. He uses pitch and harmony as elements of the music's formal structure to portray the drama. Some pitch sets recur at crucial moments, establishing continuity and contributing to coherence. B–F tritonal dyads represent Wozzeck and Marie, tense and struggling. BTemplate:Music–DTemplate:Music minor-third dyads represent Marie's bond with her child.

Berg adapted some of his tonal juvenilia for use in Wozzeck. In Marie's Bible scene, he reworked an early sonata fragment in F minor, which Christopher Hailey described as Schumannesque in its abiding melancholy.Template:Sfn In an {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} interlude adapted from a Mahlerian student piece in D minor, Berg brings the opera to a climax with a dominant-functioning aggregate sonority marked Template:Serif, which crescendos into a potent statement of the "anguish" leitmotif (act 3, mm. 364–365). The dramatic effect is cathartic after Wozzeck's final mad scene {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Template:SfnmTemplate:Efn Then Wozzeck's and Marie's unnamed orphan son plays among children singing {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in a brief epilogue. They are interrupted by the news that a peer shouts at him: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}Template:Efn

Berg's notes and sketches for Wozzeck (and for the March from his Three Orchestral Pieces, 1913–1915) were mingled with disjointed fragments of military ordinances and terminology. In a draft page of the act 1, scene 2 libretto, he sketched Austrian army bugle calls. He modified them in the final score, where they appeared in a recognizably atonal form. He also included modified folk elements, particularly in the open field and tavern scenes. Berg's war experience also informed his word painting of snoring soldiers in barracks (act 2, scene 5): "this polyphonic breathing, gasping, and groaning is the most peculiar chorus I've ever heard. It is like some primeval music that wells up from the abysses of the soul".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

ReceptionEdit

Wozzeck is one of the most famous 20th-century modernist operas. John Deathridge called it "one of the undisputed masterpieces of modern opera".Template:Sfn It has also been compared to Schoenberg's Erwartung in its dissonant, psychological idiom.Template:Sfn The inner turmoil and self-destructive trajectory of its outcast antiheroTemplate:Sfn has also prompted comparison to other major operas with similar male title roles, including Verdi's Macbeth and Nabucco, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and Britten's Peter Grimes.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Cultural contextEdit

Wozzeck comes from the same expressionist milieu, with its origins in Symbolism,Template:Efn as novelist Franz Kafka, painters Oskar KokoschkaTemplate:Efn and Emil Nolde, and poets Gottfried Benn, Rainier Maria Rilke,Template:Efn and Franz Werfel.Template:Sfn In German opera, Strauss's Elektra is an early example, followed by Schoenberg's more radical Erwartung and Die glückliche Hand.Template:Sfn Among the operas premiered within a year of Wozzeck were Hindemith's Cardillac, Krenek's Zwingburg and Sprung, and Weill's Protagonist.Template:Sfn

Schoenberg and Webern influenced Berg most, but his operas show other influences, David Schroeder suggests, emphasizing Viennese coffee house culture as facilitating Berg's early contact with a mix of innovative personalities across disciplines.Template:Sfn Among these were more popular composers like Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus, or Erich Korngold and Strauss at establishments like the Café Museum.Template:Sfn John L. Stewart suggests that Wozzeck was influenced not only by Schoenberg's Erwartung but also by Schreker's Der ferne Klang, the piano-vocal score of which Berg prepared in 1911.Template:Sfn Schroeder agrees, cautioning that Berg thought less of Schreker than he did of Mahler, Schoenberg, or himself,Template:Efn and that Schreker's operas were more Wagnerian.Template:Sfn

WagnerEdit

In his 1929 lecture on Wozzeck, Berg said he rejected "the Wagnerian recipe of 'through-composing'" in opting for traditional forms.Template:Sfnm At the time, this prompted comparisons to Busoni's Doktor Faust and Hindemith's Cardillac.Template:Sfn Deathridge and Hailey wrote that the intense emotional depth of Berg's music still linked it to (post-)Wagnerian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.Template:Sfnm Hailey contended that Berg always highlighted this formal approach partly to subvert his reputation for quasi-Romanticism.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Werfel, perhaps the Bergs' closest literary friend, disparaged Wagner's "bloated excess" and "garrulous monotony" in favor of Verdi, and may have influenced Berg's 1920s opinion of Wagner as "antiquated".Template:Sfn

GurlittEdit

The much delayed discovery and staging of Büchner's incomplete Woyzeck inspired not only Berg, but also Manfred Gurlitt.Template:Sfn Premiered only four months after Berg's,<ref name="Gurlitt"/> Gurlitt's opera was also entitled Wozzeck and published by Universal Edition, discomfiting Berg.Template:Sfn They worked without any knowledge of one another.<ref name="Gurlitt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

When Berg examined Gurlitt's piano–vocal score, he considered it "not bad or unoriginal", but a weak "broth ... even for {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (poor folks)".Template:Sfn Hailey agreed, noting its simpler musical textures and describing its polystylism as closer to Hindemith or Weill.Template:Sfn Hailey praised Gurlitt's more frequent, socially oriented use of chorus, and wrote that Gurlitt's approach may have been more faithful to Büchner's original conception.Template:Sfn Gurlitt's work has remained in the shadow of Berg's.<ref name="Gurlitt"/>

Performance historyEdit

The 1924 Frankfurt premiere of the Three Fragments from Wozzeck at the annual {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} festival, along with Webern's premiere of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} from the Three Orchestral Pieces during an Austrian Music Week in 1923 Berlin, initiated Berg's regional reputation as a considerable figure in music.Template:Sfn

Erich Kleiber conducted the world premiere of the entire work at the Berlin State Opera on 14 December 1925, having personally decided on it.<ref name="Walsh" /> Hailey writes that it was "the event of the season", achieving a noted combination of coherence and expressivity over a substantial length of time despite its post-tonal musical language.Template:Sfn Walsh writes that it was a succès de scandale with audience disruptions and mixed reaction in the press.<ref name="Walsh" /> Many productions followed throughout Germany and Austria until after 1933, when the Nazis forbade "degenerate music".<ref name="Walsh" />

Wozzeck was then taken to Prague by Otakar Ostrčil at the National Theatre in 1926. It provoked a "scandal", Berg wrote his pupil Theodor W. Adorno, staged by "Czech Nationalists (virtually Nazis)" and "clerical lobbies". Berg emphasized that this wasTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

purely political! (To them I am the Berlin Jew Alban (Aaron?) Berg. Ostrčil bribed by the Russian Bolsheviks, the whole thing arranged by the 'Elders of Zion' etc).{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

}}

{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }} The Bohemian State Committee forbade further performances.Template:Sfn Brian S. Locke called the "Wozzeck Affair" the "most important event at the Czechs' National Theater in the interwar period".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

At its third premiere (1927) in Leningrad, the Association for Contemporary Music and Nikolai Roslavets staged Wozzeck at the Mariinsky Theatre with Berg and Shostakovich in attendance.Template:Sfn Berg wired Helene, "huge, tumultuous success", though critical reception was mixed.Template:Sfn (Amid Stalinism and deteriorating Germany–Soviet Union relations, Wozzeck had yet to be restaged in the Soviet Union, George Perle observed in 1980.)Template:Sfn

On 19 March 1931, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company gave the United States premiere of Wozzeck on 19 March<ref name="Walsh" /> at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia.

Henry Wood and the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave a studio concert of the Three Fragments from Wozzeck, which Edward Clark, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, produced for broadcast on 13 May 1932.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 14 March 1934, Adrian Boult conducted a complete concert performance of Wozzeck, again produced by Edward Clark, in the Queen's Hall.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (The opera was not staged there until 22 January 1952 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.)<ref name="Walsh" />

Effect on BergEdit

The success of Wozzeck transformed Berg's life.Template:Sfn It brought him international renown, and he was able to live comfortably off the royalties nearly until his death in 1935.Template:Sfn He traveled not only to Germany, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and England, but also to Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, France, and Italy for performances of and talks about the opera.Template:Sfn

Busy attending to his newfound success and enjoying financial independence, Berg declined Schreker's offers of an appointment at the Berlin Musikhochschule as well as subsequent vacations with Schoenberg, though the two remained committed friends.Template:Sfn He benefited from new relationships with Karl Böhm, Erich Kleiber, and Gian Francesco Malipiero, among others, and was appointed to serve on the jury of the ADMV.Template:Sfn

InfluenceEdit

KrenekEdit

Hans Hartleb saw many parallels between Wozzeck and Krenek's Orpheus und Eurydike.Template:Sfn He cited the composers' use of violent scenes and saw the music of both Eurydike and Marie as evocative of "fatalism, melancholy, and sensuality".Template:Sfn Stewart agrees, writing that Berg's music for Marie raised her from a "stock character" to one of more substance.Template:Sfn Berg and Krenek knew each other from the salons of Alma Mahler.Template:Sfn (Alma was a close friend of the BergsTemplate:Sfn and the wife or lover of Gustav Mahler, Kokoschka, and Werfel.)

Krenek began studying the piano-vocal score of Wozzeck in early 1923, while visiting Kokoschka, the librettist of Orpheus.Template:Sfn Krenek wrote Berg to praise Wozzeck and ask about Berg's vocal writing.Template:Sfn Berg responded at length, citing (and transcribing) examples from Wagner, Mozart, and Bach to support what he said was his treatment of the human voice as "the supreme instrument".Template:Sfn He said he adapted the music with respect to the voices' limitations and dramatic function.Template:Sfn Berg also used {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Lit.) for dramatic effect.Template:Sfn Krenek later said he did not use Wozzeck as a model for Orpheus, but Stewart suggests that he at least adhered to Berg's advice about vocal writing.Template:Sfn

Later musicEdit

In Sinfonia (1968–69), Luciano Berio quotes the rising orchestral chords Berg uses in the word painting of Wozzeck's drowning.Template:Cn

ArrangementsEdit

Working with Berg,Template:Sfn Erwin Stein made an arrangement of Wozzeck for smaller theaters, reducing the orchestra to about 60 players.<ref>"Alban Berg – Wozzeck – reduced version (Stein)", Universal Edition. Retrieved 12 November 2013.</ref> John Rea's arrangement is for 22 singer and 21 instrumental parts.<ref name=UE>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

RecordingsEdit

Film adaptationEdit

The 1970 Hamburg State Opera production was filmed for the 1972 TV film Wozzeck, directed by Template:Ill and broadcast on Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Filming was done in and around a deserted castle.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

NotesEdit

Template:Notelist

CitationsEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

Template:Div col

Template:Refend

Further readingEdit

  • Adorno, Theodor W. (1991), Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link. Trans. Juliane Brand and Christopher Hailey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN
  • Bailey Puffett, Kathryn. 1997. "Berg's aphoristic pieces". The Cambridge Companion to Berg, ed. Anthony Pople, 83–110. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN.
  • Bonds, Mark Edward (June 2020). " 'WozzeckTemplate:'s Worst Hours': Alban Berg’s Presentation Copy of Wozzeck to Eduard Steuermann". Notes, 76(4), 527–534. Template:JSTOR
  • Hall, Patricia (2011), "Berg's Wozzeck". Studies in Musical Genesis, Structure, and Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press. Template:ISBN (accessed 29 October 2012).
  • Jarman, Douglas (1979), The Music of Alban Berg. London and Boston: Faber & Faber Template:ISBN; Berkeley: University of California Press. Template:ISBN
  • Jarman, Douglas (1989), "Alban Berg, Wozzeck". Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN (cloth) Template:ISBN (pbk).
  • Schmalfeldt, Janet (1983), "Berg's Wozzeck", Harmonic Language and Dramatic Design. New Haven: Yale University Press Template:ISBN.

External linksEdit

Template:Alban Berg Template:Woyzeck Template:Second Viennese School Template:OlivierAward OperaProduction

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