The Many Faces of WOZZECK

When it premiered in 1925, Berg’s opera Wozzeck shattered preconceptions of how opera should sound and the types of stories it should tell.

From the opera’s dark inspirations to the rich interpretations that have followed in the century since its premiere, we’re sharing just a few of the many faces of this challenging and timelessly relevant tale of trauma, vice, paranoia, and madness.

Berg cited Georg Büchner’s 1836 play Woyzeck, which the composer had attended at its Vienna premiere in 1914, as the inspiration for his opera. The play was itself loosely based on the true story of a Leipzig wigmaker-turned-soldier named Johan Christian Woyzeck who, in a fit of jealousy, had murdered the widow with whom he’d been living. His trial was the first in German history in which an insanity defence was used, with medical findings following his execution suggesting that Woyzeck had been borderline schizophrenic. 

Büchner’s play—left incomplete at his death in 1837 and subsequently reinterpreted in various guises with different endings—would go on to be one of the most influential and frequently performed in the German repertoire, inspiring a wide range of adaptations, including a 1969 production at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Another opera by Manfred Gurlitt premiered in Bremen in 1926, shortly after Berg’s work made its first appearance at the Berlin State Opera. Both composers are said to have been unaware of the fact that they had been working on a common project, with Gurlitt’s Wozzeck portraying its antihero as delusional, rather than a victim of his superiors.

Cinematic interpretations of the piece proved popular from the mid-20th century, with Georg C. Klaren’s 1947 film telling the story through a series of flashbacks.

In 1979, director Werner Herzog released his own take with Woyzeck, starring Klaus Kinski in the title role. Filming began just a few days after work on Nosferatu the Vampyre had concluded, and accounts from the cast and crew suggest an exhausting experience, with most scenes completed in a single take. Filming took 18 days, and editing was done in four.

The film features a number of powerful musical moments, including Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 81s, Second Movement ("Abwesenheit") in the opening scene, and the second movement of Vivaldi’s concerto for lute and two violins in D major (RV93) in the closing credits.

Wozzeck has also inspired dance interpretations, most notably Different Drummer, a 1984 one-act ballet by Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Featuring music by Webern and Schoenberg, this piece was described by The Guardian as “not an easy ballet…but it should be seen especially by people who think ballet is just Swan Lake.”

Woyzeck, a musical conceived by Robert Wilson (whose Turandot appeared at the COC in 2019), included lyrics and music by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan and premiered in 2000 featuring songs from Waits’s Blood Money album.

In a further creative departure, a puppet theatre version titled Woyzeck on the Highveld made its Barbican debut in 1992. Produced by South Africa-based Handspring Puppet Company (most famous for the global hit War Horse) and directed by William Kentridge, Woyzeck on the Highveld relocates the story to 1950s South Africa, with Woyzeck himself depicted as a migrant worker in Johannesburg’s harsh industrial mining world.

Which brings us to the Canadian Opera Company’s upcoming presentation of this endlessly fascinating work, directed by Kentridge in a genre-breaking multimedia production and starring baritone Michael Kupfer-Radecky and soprano Ambur Braid.

Join us this spring to experience the musical power and unforgettable storytelling of this giant of modern opera as Wozzeck continues on its journey of indefatigable, boundary-pushing reinvention.

Photo Credits: Klaus Kinski in Wozzeck, 1979. Director: Werner Herzog; Wozzeck (Salzburg Festival, 2017). Photo: Ruth Walz; The Ingmar Bergman Archives; Wozzeck, 1947. Director: George C. Klaren;  Klaus Kinski in Wozzeck, 1979. Director: Werner Herzog; Different Drummer (1984). Photo: Leslie E. Spatt; Woyzeck (2000). Photo: Hansen-Hansen; Woyzeck on the Highveld (2012). Photo: John Hodgkiss.