Wozzeck

WOZZECK

Musical tragedy in 18 scenes and 1 epilogue by Manfred Gurlitt - supplemented with perspectives by Alban Berg
Based on the drama fragment by Georg Büchner

To mark the 100th anniversary of the premiere, we are bringing Manfred Gurlitt's "Wozzeck" back to the stage - a work that is very rarely performed. Created at the same time as Alban Berg's well-known version, Gurlitt's opera tells the same story based on Georg Büchner's impressive original, but in his very own musical language.

The focus is on the soldier Wozzeck, who comes under pressure from all sides: humiliated by his captain, abused by a doctor as a test subject - and all this just to somehow get his small family through. Marie, who lives with him and their child in abject poverty, sees no way out of her dreary everyday life. Her decision to accept the advances of the drum major throws everything into turmoil - with a tragic outcome.

Gurlitt's opera depicts a world without compassion - a dark chamber play about social coldness and emotional decay. In our production, his music remains the focus. At a few sensitive points, we carefully supplement it with brief moments from Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" in order to shed even more light on individual characters - especially Marie.

We are particularly interested in the question of perspective. The musical insertions from Berg's work expand Gurlitt's narrative at certain points and make the inner world of the characters tangible - without breaking the narrative line.