Wozzeck
Sign in to saveWozzeck () is the first opera by Austrian composer Alban Berg, created between 1914 and 1922 and premiered on 14 December 1925 at the Berlin State Opera. Based on Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck (1836), it depicts a soldier's tragic slide into madness and murder amid militarism and oppression.
Key facts
- Opera.name
- Wozzeck
- Opera.composer
- Alban Berg
- Opera.image
- Hans Heinrich Palitzsch 1974 poster Wozzek.jpg
- Opera.caption
- Poster from the 1974 Oldenburgisches Staatstheater production
- Opera.librettist
- Berg
- Opera.language
- German
- Opera.premiere_location
- Berlin State Opera
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
49 sectionsContents
- Background
- Büchner, Woyzeck, and Berg
- Before Berg: Büchner and Woyzeck
- Toward Berg's ''Wozzeck''
- Source texts and treatment
- 1914–1922: History of composition process
- 1914–1916: Genesis amid war
- 1917–1918: Resolve and state collapse
- 1919–1922: Progress through war's aftermath
- Composition
- Scoring
- Roles
- Instrumentation
- Music
- Altered idioms
- Musicodramatic synopsis
- Act 1
- Act 2
- Act 3
- Reception
- Performance history
- Premieres
- 1921–1925: Promotion, publication, and world premiere
- Gurlitt's ''Wozzeck''
- 1926–1934: Subsequent premieres
- 1926: ''Vojcek''
- 1927: Leningrad
- 1929–1930: Arrangement and lectures for regional cities
- 1930: Viennese premiere and polemic
- 1930–1931: Philadelphia and New York
- 1932–1934: British broadcasts
- Effect on Berg
- 1934–1949: Decline and suppression
- 1949–2008: Revivals and later premieres
- Europe, Russia, and Australia
- Influence
- Krenek
- Shostakovich
- Others
- Other arrangements
- Recordings
- Film adaptation
- See also
- References
- Notes
- Citations
- Bibliography
- Further reading
- External links
Wozzeck () is the first opera by Austrian composer Alban Berg, created between 1914 and 1922 and premiered on 14 December 1925 at the Berlin State Opera. Based on Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck (1836), it depicts a soldier's tragic slide into madness and murder amid militarism and oppression.
Berg's expressionist musical language and innovative approach to musical form heightened the opera's psychological realism. He used atonality and leitmotifs to show individuals' emotional and existential plight under forces of authority. Drawing on tonal and rhythmic idioms from folk and dance music, he linked psychological and social dimensions and exposed social alienation. He also invoked latent themes and topics of destiny and nature, reflecting an understanding of humanity as shaped by universal forces.