Review: Wozzeck
Welsh National Opera, Bristol Hippodrome.
A tale of insanity, lust, unfaithfulness and murder, culminating in suicide, and all amid cans of baked beans – brand unspecified – has a weird appeal, but set it among a musical moonscape by Alban Berg and the result is irresistible.
The trouble is that too few people are prepared to allow their imagination to be stretched and their musical inquisitiveness to be satiated.
The result, of course, is a half full or half empty theatre.
The music from Lothar Koenigs’s urgings of the huge WNO orchestra is mind-blowing, juicily brassy and deeply moving. Berg’s orchestration, so like Janecek, strikes chords in the brain.
It’s one of those operas, with minimal scenery, 15 scenes in three acts, in which the story is probably immaterial yet director Richard Jones uses his principal pawns – Christopher Purves as Wozzeck, Graham Clark as the captain and Wiolette Chodowicz as Marie – on an at times humorous chess board that bucks the conventions.
Don’t be frightened; see it.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article