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Alban Berg - Wozzeck (2007) [DVD9 NTSC]
Historical Studio Production from Hamburg State Opera, 1970
Sung in German
Wozzeck - Toni Blankenheim
Drum Major - Richard Cassilly
Andres - Peter Haage
Captain - Gerhard Unger
Doctor - Hans Sotin
Workman I - Kurt Moll
Workman II - Franz Grundheber
The Fool - Kurt Marschner
Marie - Sena Jurinac
Margret - Elizabeth Steiner
Chorus of the Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra
Bruno Maderna, conductor
Joachim Hess, TV director
Rolf Liebermann, artistic director
Picture format: NTSC 4:3 (Colour)
Sound format: Mono
Menu Languages: English, German, French, Spanish
Subtitle Languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 106 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9
Release Date: 2007-04-24
.: Tracklist :
The production of Wozzeck comes from the following year, in 1970. Said castle is somewhat worse for wear, and it turns out to have been a surprisingly appropriate and atmospheric setting. Hess's eye for composition is superb, at times seemingly influenced by the German Expressionist directors. The cameras pull one into the drama in a way more difficult to achieve in the opera house, and the direction itself thankfully lacks the ironic distancing all too common in productions from the last two decades. There are orchestral interludes between the scenes, some of them quite lengthy, and here, a decision was made to keep the cameras rolling, and to show us the characters in action. (Also, as in The Devils of Loudun, there are no breaks between the acts.)
Conductor Bruno Maderna was one of the gods of 20th-century music, and his Wozzeck is deeply emotional, so much so that even listeners who usually find themselves resisting Berg's music might be compelled to go along for the ride anyway. In my experience, the only other conductor to lead this music so feelingly was Karl Bˆhm.
Toni Blankenheim falls a little short of greatness in the title role. Both visually and vocally, his Wozzeck is more stolid than stressed, and several singers come to mind who express a greater range of emotions, painted with a broader palette of colors, than Blankenheim does. The camera is cruelly perceptive, though, and it is possible that Blankenheim thought (or was told) that he needed to scale things back for television. His voice is a little frayed too, although I suppose that fits the character.
Sotin is chilling as the Doctor, almost a character out of a Fassbinder film. His eyes are all aglitter as he torments both Wozzeck and the Captain. In the latter role, Unger seems to be modeling himself after Gerhard Stolze, with ample use of a grotesque falsetto. Cassilly's strutting Drum Major is so well sung one wonders what he would have been like in the larger role of the Captain. Haage is a likeable Andres, and it is luxury casting to find Moll and Grundheber as the drunken workmen, who appear briefly in one scene and then disappear. The real surprise here is Sena Jurinac as Marie. Here is a singer who was most famous for her Mozart roles. Berg is a very different challenge, of course, and yet she brings her familiar virtues to Marie as well: warmth, vibrancy, and dedication to the score's musical values. She is a fine actress too.
Arthaus Musik's boxes might cause one to believe that these productions are in black in white. Fortunately, they are in color, and the visuals (full screen) still look quite good, even though there are enough artifacts to remind us that we are watching films that are almost 40 years old. (At the start of Wozzeck there is a brief statement that there were film elements that could not be completely restored, but the apology was hardly necessary.)
There are several staged productions of Wozzeck on DVD, and viewers might want to explore one of those first. Although it is not for everyone.
PLEASE GIVE AT LEAST WHAT YOU HAVE TAKEN
STAY IN SEED PLEASE
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