WOZZECK
OPERA IN THREE ACTS
LIBRETTO BY THE COMPOSER BASED ON THE DRAMA WOYZECK (1836) BY GEORG BÜCHNER
FIRST PERFORMED ON 14 DECEMBER 1925 AT THE STAATSOPER UNTER DEN LINDEN, BERLIN
NEW PRODUCTION FESTIVAL D’AIX-EN-PROVENCE
— WITH THE SUPPORT OF MADAME ALINE FORIEL-DESTEZET, GRANDE MÉCÈNE D'EXCEPTION DES 75 ANS DU FESTIVAL D'AIX-EN-PROVENCE
The audience is struck by an act of continuity in violence, continuity in division and continuity in vision: with all that lies behind the dream, as if the pit of the mind had opened up.
Pierre Jean Jouve and Michel Fano, Wozzeck d’Alban Berg (1964)
Wozzeck is a typical example of the poor humanity of modern times: a brave soldier, scapegoat of a whole social system, who kills his mistress out of jealousy and then commits suicide. The Romantic playwright Büchner painted this vivid portrait in the early days of industrialisation: a relentless movement of objectification of beings that culminates in the mass grave of the First World War – of which Berg's opera is, in its own way, the posttraumatic echo, as much as it prophesies the world to come. For his third time at the Festival, Simon McBurney captures Wozzeck’s last minute, the moment when he drowns, and makes it a spectacular externalisation of his tormented psyche, as well as a grotesque recollection of his obsessions. Sir Simon Rattle will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra and a first-rate cast; Christian Gerhaher brings all his Liedersänger skills
in a subtle and heart-rending incarnation of the title role as a myth of our time.
Ticket prices: €297, €206, €165, €130, €90, €59, €31
Youth prices: €89, €61, €49, €39, €27, €17, €9
Performance available with ticket packages and Dinner & Opera offer
1 hour and 40 minutes without interval
Sung in German with French and English surtitles
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LE PROPHÈTE
GRAND OPERA IN FIVE ACTS LIBRETTO BY EUGÈNE SCRIBE FIRST PERFORMED ON 16 APRIL 1849 AT THE SALLE LE PELETIER, THÉÂTRE DE LA NATION, PARIS