WOZZECK

BADISCHES STAATSTHEATER
KARLSRUHE, GERMANY

Duration 1 hour 45 minutes

Director Maxim Didenko

Premiere 25 March 2023 – last shown July 2023

CREATIVE TEAM

Music and libretto Alban Berg, after Georg Büchner
Conductor Justin Brown
Conductor (later performances) Dominic Limburg
Set and costume designer Maria Tregubova
Video Ilya Starilov
Lighting designer Christoph Pöschko
Choreographers Alexander Fend, Sofia Pintzou
Chorus master Ulrich Wagner
Dramaturgs Boris Kehrmann, Florian Köfler

CAST

Wozzeck Birger Radde / Jaco Venter
Marie Helena Juntunen
Drum Major Thomas Paul
Andres Eleazar Rodríguez / Nutthaporn Thammathi
Captain Matthias Wohlbrecht / Klaus Schneider
Doctor Vazgen Gazaryan
First Apprentice Nathanaël Tavernier
Second Apprentice Merlin Wagner
The Fool Einar Dagur Jónsson
Margret Jasmin Etminan
Marie's Child Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe
A Soldier Samuel Kim / César del Río Fuentes
Actress Sandra Maria Germann
Dancers Thomas Bauer, Rosella Canciello, Camilla Fiumara, Nikos Fragkou, Manuel Gaubatz, Enora Gemin, Jacqueline Kreil, Raquel Lefebvre Lanziner, Shinnosuke Nagata, Andrew Pan

Exploited and socially excluded, poor soldier Wozzeck toils to feed his partner Marie and their illegitimate child. Abused by the doctor for inhumane experiments and patronized by his captain, he gradually drifts into madness. Marie seeks consolation in the Bible and takes refuge in the arms of the handsome drum major in order to escape the crushing misery at least for a short time. Mentally unstable, Wozzeck reflects before committing a horrible act: "Every person is an abyss, it makes you dizzy when you look down."

Georg Büchner's social drama focuses on life in the precariat. With his setting, Alban Berg created a milestone in music history that has captivated audiences for around 100 years. His revolutionary tonal language made him one of the most important opera composers of his generation. Condensed into three times five scenes, Wozzeck reveals itself as a gripping and highly topical work about social ills, which anticipates the fast cuts of modern film and develops an unbelievable pull that inevitably leads to catastrophe.

Director Maxim Didenko trained at the St Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy and worked as an actor before directing in St Petersburg, Moscow, Omsk, Novosibirsk, London and Prague from 2010; in 2019 he staged Böll’s Views of a Clown at Nationaltheater Mannheim. Together with stage and costume designer Maria Tregubova, he makes his opera debut with this production, rendering the inner life of the title character tangible through a visually powerful staging.