MET 2019/2020 - Alban Berg: Wozzeck
Opera Broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, new production, first time in HD, 92 min, 2020
in German with English and Hungarian subtitles
Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Co-Director: Luc De Wit, Projection Designer: Catherine Meyburgh, Set Designer: Sabine Theunissen, Costume Designer: Greta Goiris, Lighting Designer: Urs Schönebaum
Cast: Elza van den Heever (Marie), Tamara Mumford (Margret), Christopher Ventris (The Drum-Major), Gerhard Siegel (The Captain), Andrew Staples (Andres), Peter Mattei (Wozzeck), Christian Van Horn (Doctor)
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts William Kentridge’s new production of Alban Berg’s expressionistic masterpiece Wozzeck, regarded for its intense emotional powerand brilliant scoreas one of the most significant operas of the 20th century. Composed during and in the aftermath of World War I, Berg’s dark exploration of a soldier besieged by the evils of society, is staged by Kentridge in a ramshackle warren of stairs, ramps, discarded furniture, and debris. His own theatrically animated charcoal drawings, along with other projected drawings, maps, and film clips, evoke a nightmarish world of crashed planes, searchlights, ghostly gas masks, and battlefields. Peter Mattei makes his role debut as Wozzeck opposite Elza van den Heever as Marie, the mother of his child. Singing the roles of Wozzeck’s tormentors are Christopher Ventrisas the Drum-Major, Gerhard Siegel as the Captain, and Christian Van Hornas the Doctor. Andrew Staplesmakes his Met debut as Andres.Kentridge, who previously directed Berg’s Luluand Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Met, unveiled thenew production at the 2017 Salzburg Festival, where it received critical acclaim.Kentridge’s production is aco-production of the Met, Canadian Opera Company,Opera Australia, and Salzburg Festival.
