von Alban Berg (1885–1935), Oper in 3 Akten mit 15 Szenen, Libretto von Georg Büchner
UA: 14. Dezember 1925, Oper Unter den Linden Berlin
Regie: Christiane Iven, Bühne: Guido Petzold, Kostüme: Kristina Böcher, Leitung Opernchor: Sebastian Kennerknecht, Leitung Jugendchor: Dorislava Kuntscheva, Leitung Kinderchor: Sebastian Kennerknecht, Kristina Baran und Jana Eimer, Dramaturgie: Yuri Colossale
Opernchor des Anhaltischen Theaters Dessau, Jugendchor des Anhaltischen Theaters Dessau, Kinderchor des Anhaltischen Theaters Dessau
Dirigent: Markus L. Frank, Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau
Solisten: Kay Stiefermann (Wozzeck), Ania Vegry (Marie), Julian Keiner (das Kind), Torsten Kerl (Tambourmajor), Arnold Bezuyen (Hauptmann), Michael Tews (Doktor), Christian Sturm (Andres), Sophia Maeno (Margret), Clausius Muth (erster Handwerksbursche), Alexander Argirov (zweiter Handwerksbursche), David Ameln (der Narr)
Besuchte Aufführung: 1. März 2025 (Premiere)
Summary of the action
Poor and psychically instable, the soldier Wozzeck is subjected to daily humiliations in his menial jobs as a barber and as a medical guinea pig to make ends meet for Marie and their son. During a military parade, Marie is seduced by the Drum Major. After having learned of her infidelity, Wozzeck brings Marie at night near a pond and stabs her to death; then, searching for the knife, he drowns himself to death. The opera ends with Wozzeck’s and Marie’s boy, taunted by other children.
Performance
The first scene—Wozzeck shaving his Captain—sets in motion the mechanism that will crush Wozzeck through social oppression and moral condemnation (as the Captain points out, Wozzeck and Marie are not married and have an out of wedlock boy). Guido Petzold’s stage design consists in two walls made of stacked white rectangular blocks of different sizes, delineating the width and the right side of the stage. The walls are sometimes completely lifted, or just half-lifted, while variations of lighting can create an oppressing space, reflecting Wozzeck’s increasing mental instability and his position as a social outcast. This is effectively rendered in the scene between Wozzeck and the Doctor who submits him to dubious medical experiments (I, 4): the main wall remains lowered, the muted lighting aggrandizing the shadows of both protagonists, appearing deformed and slightly sinister against the irregular surface of the wall.
The costumes by Kristina Böcher are contemporary-oriented: the Drum Major wears an elaborate, yet grotesque military loose-hanging pelisse over-jacket, and exits his scene in long underpants. Made in a slightly brownish gauze fabric worn over his white underwear, Wozzeck’s workwear signals his vulnerability and subservient condition. By contrast, Andres, Wozzeck’s sole companion, wears a similar ensemble without the transparency effect. Andres’ first appearance in the nocturnal scene (I, 2), during which Wozzeck is subjected to hallucinations, introduces us to the location where the murder will occur (III, 2). In both scenes, the white walls are lifted, revealing as backdrop a dense forest in dark grey tones that would have perfectly suited such situations: the presence at the foreground of the scene of vivid green ornamental ferns neatly lined up in square containers was unnecessary, detracting with the gloomy atmosphere of both scenes.
Marie is introduced with her neighbor Margret (I, 3): both enter on stage removing their utility gloves and disposable hairnets—as if having finished their work shift as cleaning ladies or factory workers. They wear short rocks in garish and ill-assorted colors and patterns, especially Margret, with her leopard boots and neon pink stockings. Outside, a military parade approaches: the two women have an argument, Margret mocking Marie for being too seductive with the Drum Major. The quarrel ends abruptly with Marie slamming her window shut, an effect here rendered by the not so sudden and rather ineffective complete lowering of the white walls, which had remained half-lifted throughout the scene as to show us the feet of the soldiers during their parade. In her subsequent encounter with the Drum Major (I, 5), Marie succumbs to him after he offers her a pair of earrings. Emphasizing the transactional aspect of this seduction, the scene ends in quasi obscurity, only revealing the shadowy silhouettes of the Drum Major seizing Marie from behind against the white wall.
The second act is dominated by the tavern’s scene (II, 4) during which Wozzeck fully realizes Marie’s betrayal, observing her from a distance while she dances with the Drum Major. Colorful and a tad carnavalesque, the attires of the customers betray the cheap thrills of a lower social cast drowning in alcohol their Untertan conditions—one of them wears on his T-shirt “Problem gelöst” (“Problem solved”). In this lurid atmosphere, it is never easy to stage the disturbing entrance of the Fool, who senses that something terrible is about to happen: “I smell blood!” His costume contrasts with the others: it is almost similar to Wozzeck’s, in the same gauze material, but in red and black, vaguely devilish.
The climax of the opera is reached in its third act with Marie’s murder (III, 2), but the difficulty is to maintain that tension until the final scene. After having killed Marie, Wozzeck returns to the tavern (III, 3): the blood stains on him awake the suspicion of the customers. Terrified, Wozzeck flees back to the crime scene to get rid of the knife. He doesn’t find it and drowns himself to death in the pond where Marie now lies (III, 4). In Iven’s staging, Marie’s and Wozzeck’s son has been present during the murder scene, hiding under a bank: crawling back to his dead mother, he finds the knife, calmly puts it in its pocket, and leaves.
In the final scene, children are playing and bullying the child: “You, your mother is dead!” shouts cruelly at him one of them; another hits him on the face, making him bleed. Indifferent or just unable to comprehend, the child continues to play hopscotch alone: “hop hop, hop hop.”
Orchestra and Singers
Ania Vegry’s luminous soprano (Marie) dominated the evening: her Bible reading scene (III, 1) was the most moving moment of the whole evening. Kay Stiefermann gave a beautiful rendition of Wozzeck, although the development of his character, from passive victim to murderer, could have been better explored, something that may have more to do with the stage direction. Commedia dell’artesque in their buffoonery, the Drum Major (Torsten Kerl), the sinister Doctor (Michael Tews) and the Captain (Arnold Bezuyen) did not disappoint especially Bezuyen’s supple voice, and the clarity of his Sprechgesang. Andres (Christian Sturm) could have displayed more lyricism in the nocturnal scene of Act I. The choirs (Opernchor, Jugendchor and Kinderchor) were all exemplary, and the child (Julian Keiner) deserves here special mention in a role usually confined to figuration and a brief singing intervention at the end. Markus L. Frank masterfully conducted with precision and clarity the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau.
Conclusion
Christiane Iven’s stage direction intends to highlight a specific “societal pattern, in which women experience violence, from the moment they put into question masculine domination.” (“Die Ermordung Maries […] verweist auf ein größeres gesellschaftliches Muster, in dem Frauen Gewalt erfahren, sobald sie männliche Dominanz infrage stellen.”) I am not sure this promotes an original reading of this opera. Instead, her staging eloquently highlighted, through the almost silent but overtly present character of Wozzeck’s and Marie’s child in almost all scenes of the opera, how structural violence remains inscribed and is perpetuated in those societal patterns.
Prof. Jacqueline Waeber
Photograph: Claudia Heysel
The photo shows: Kay Stiefermann (Wozzeck), Ania Vegry (Marie) und Jonathan Bischoff (Kind)