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Metropolitan Opera Presents Wozzeck; Completes Run of New Boris Godunov Production

Apr. 01, 2011

The Metropolitan Opera is set to embark on four performances of Alban Berg’s 20th-century masterpiece Wozzeck from April 6 through April 16. James Levine conducts this revival of Mark Lamos’ heralded production of Wozzeck, a landmark operatic achievement premiered in 1925 and regarded as one of the earliest and most ingenious uses of atonality in the opera house. Alan Held assumes the title role, with tenors Stuart Skelton, Gerhard Siegel, bass Walter Fink and mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier making her Metropolitan Opera debut in Berg’s uncompromising portrayal of a man tormented and driven to murder by the evils of society. Paul Griffiths writing in The New York Times in 1999 remarked that the Lamos production “demands to be seen and heard and felt and thought about.” Opera lovers outside New York need not worry about missing Wozzeck: the opening performance on April 6, as well as the April 16 performance, will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS channel 78 and XM channel 79. The opening performance will also be available via internet streaming at the Met’s website www.metopera.org.

Last month The Met concluded its 2010/11 run of Boris Godunov, Modest Mussorgsky’s epic portrait of Russia and its 16th-century ruler in crisis. Directed by Stephen Wadsworth and conducted by Valery Gergiev, the performances marked the first new Metropolitan Opera production of Modest Mussorgsky’s classic in three dozen years. The music was performed in the composer's revised version from 1872, in the Baerenreiter edition available for performance from EAM.  Anthony Tommasini commented in The New York Times after the opening in October, 2010:

Hearing the colors and textures that Mr. Gergiev drew from the great Met orchestra, it was hard to imagine why Mussorgsky’s work was questioned. Sometimes the scoring is curiously thin, but the sparseness actually enhances the tragedy of the opera and complements the vocal setting of the text, which often follows the natural flow and speech patterns of the Russian words.

This edition of Boris Godunov makes its next appearance in the US at Dallas Opera in six performances from April 1 through 17. The Dallas production is led by Graeme Jenkins in Andrei Tarkovsky's staging, which was originally presented at Covent Garden in 1983 and is recreated for the Dallas Opera by Stephen Lawless.

Learn more on Modest Mussorgsky and Boris Godunov at www.baerenreiter.com.

More detailed information on Alban Berg and his work can be found at www.universaledition.com.

Alban Berg
Wozzeck (1914-1921)
opera in three acts (15 scenes)
libretto (Ger) by Alban Berg after Georg Büchner’s play Woyzeck
for soprano, alto, tenor, heroic tenor, lyric tenor, tenore buffo, high tenor, high baritone, baritone, basso buffo, low bass, voice and chorus
4(4pic).4(4.ca).4(1.Acl, 3.Ebcl, 4.Ebcl)bcl.3.cbsn-4.4.atbn.2ttbn.btbn.cbtba-2timp.4perc-cel.hp-str
additional ensembles on stage
90’

Modest Mussorgsky
Boris Godunov (1869-1874)
opera in four acts
libretto (Rus) by the composer based on Alexandr Pushkin's Boris Godunov and Nikolay Karamzin's History of the Russian State
for soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, six tenors, four baritones, five basses and chorus
3(pic).2(ca).2.2-4.2.3.1-timp.perc-hp.pno (four hands)-str
on stage: trumpet
210'

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