Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Metropolitan Opera – Berg’s Wozzeck. March 17, 2014.

Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  Family Circle (Seat E228, $32.50).

Story.  Wozzeck is a soldier who has a child with his girlfriend Marie.  Marie gives in to the advances of the Drum Major.  The two earrings given to Marie by the Drum Major makes Wozzeck suspicious, and the suspicion is exacerbated by the mocking of the Captain and the Doctor.  Eventually Wozzeck kills Marie with his knife.  He tries to clean up by cleaning the knife in the lake, eventually walking so deep that he drowns.  The opera ends with the child singing and playing.

Conductor – James Levine.  Wozzeck – Thomas Hampson, Marie – Deborah Voigt, Drum Major – Simon O’Neill, Captain – Peter Hoare, Doctor – Clive Bayley.

I am quite sure I had tickets to this opera for a prior season but couldn’t go because of schedule conflict.  In any case, we didn’t plan on going to this one either.  A few things changed my mind.  First, I find myself with some idle time with Anne in Jersey City.  I also read in this month’s Playbill an interview with James Levine, who uses phrases such as “audience … unable to shake it off for a long time” to describe the experience.  I am sure I don’t need to be haunted by a disturbing opera, but curiosity finally got the better of me, and I bought a Family Circle ticket yesterday after attending the LA Philharmonic concert.

The Playbill notes certainly adds to the intrigue, saying that some words are direct quotes from the real-life protagonist Woyzeck.  The notes also talks about the formal structure of the music, and contains a description of each of the three acts and the five scenes of each act.  This order supposedly stands in contrast with Wozzeck’s subjective fate.  The real-life Woyzeck tried to plead insanity, was found guilty nonetheless, and eventually executed.

Sometimes I think the Met staff goes overboard in hyping a particular opera, especially when the opera is a weak one.  Either the emperor has no clothes, or I am missing the whole point here.

One of the main haunting themes is supposedly how the little people (Wozzeck and Marie) don’t matter.  This is to be illustrated by how similar the end scene looks like the beginning scene: it is as if nothing has happened.  The fact is other than for the individuals themselves, things indeed do not matter for most people.  How many people leave lasting impact except on people that are very close to them?  The opera perhaps drives home the point with the child acting as if nothing ever happened.  But I am quite sure that is not what happened in the real-life story.

The other theme is how the elite look at themselves as being superior to the pedestrian.  My reaction is a shrug of my shoulders.  There is nothing special about that; it is still happening today.  We (the royal we) are always tempted to feel superior to those below us.  Human nature was that way before Wozzeck and Marie, and will continue to be that way after them.  And whether Wozzeck mattered or not isn’t determined by the Captain or the Doctor, but rather by his own views and actions.

There is nothing wrong with exploiting these themes and emotions in a story.  That’s what makes the arts immortal, whether it is a Shakespearean tragedy or a Wagnerian legend.  My point is this opera is just another one of those.  Not a tear jerker, not a thought-provoker, but simply a reflection of some aspects of human nature and the insignificance of life.

As I was watching it, I kept comparing it with Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, which I saw last year in Oslo.  They are both dark operas written by modern composers (actually Britten’s was much later,) they are both relatively short (this one is about 1 ½ hours), and both in the main utilize a small cast.  Wozzeck does have scenes with choruses, but they total perhaps 15 minutes.  Without referring to my notes, I remember Britten’s music characterized by “pedal points” in the voice and music in the small orchestra.  If Wozzeck were a classical opera, I would say there are a lot of recitative passages: it sounds like dialog, but the pitches change.  One major difference is we heard Britten in a small room while Wozzeck is performed in the cavernous Met auditorium.  Also the full orchestra was employed in this instance.

The Playbill has considerable information on the music.  It describes the vocal writing as ranging “from pure speech to declaimed speech with musical inflections to melodic singing.”  (I guess melody is in the ear of the listener.)  Also, “motifs … are often fragments of lines or even rhymes.”  Regardless, I had to tell myself several times that I was watching an opera instead of a play.  I have heard Berg’s music a couple of time before, and it always leaves me scratching my head a little.  Today is no exception, and I wonder if there is hope that this will improve as my exposure increases.

Most principals’ voices carried well into the Family Circle section.  Voigt actually did very well today.  I am disappointed at Thomas Hampson though.  I heard him in Thais and enjoyed his singing very much; today he sounded weak.

As to Levine, he actually conducted quite energetically and there was a commensurate urgency and poignancy to the sound.  The applause at curtain call was quite warm, and I hope provides affirmation that the audience wishes him well.

The ticket cost me $32.50.  I never imagine I would say I am glad I didn’t get a higher priced ticket.  We will find out if I have nightmares tonight.

The New York Times has two reviews of this series.  The first one, on opening night, contains a lot of details about the opera and comments on nearly every singer.  It also reports that Hampson had bronchitis and the role of Wozzeck was sung by Mattias Goerne, who evidently is an acclaimed Wozzeck.  Hampson came back a week later (March 14) and the reviewer was pleased with his performance.  What is surprising is that the reviewer actually saw this twice!  Also, this may explain the weakness of his voice.


I stopped by Jersey City before driving to New York, found off street parking on 70th, and got home at 10:30 pm.

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