Wozzeck

Verheerend
[Note: This review was originally written and posted for a Warner Music Vision release that at the time was available only overseas, although it was an all-regions disc. The 2013 reissue is identical.]

The common approach to video recordings of Berg's opera, as taken in this version's principal DVD rivals (Abbado/Dresen, Vienna '87; Levine/Lamos at the Met in '01), is to cut from the stage to the orchestra pit for the orchestral interludes separating the opera's many short scenes. In those rival versions, Claudio Abbado and James Levine have visual presences as strong as those of the principal singers. Do not expect to see Daniel Barenboim even at the beginning and end of this live performance taped in April 1994 at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. Stage director Patrice Chéreau's production unfolds very much as a live performance would -- our eyes never leave the stage. Singers sometimes are left on stage to act emotional states suggested by the orchestral...





Click to Editorial Reviews