Alban Berg

Wozzeck, Op. 7

Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935) composed the three-act opera Wozzeck between 1914 and 1922 after seeing a production of German playwright Georg Büchner's incomplete drama Woyzeck. Beginning the work in 1914, including the adaptation of Büchner's text into a libretto, Berg's obsession with completing the opera was interrupted by his serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1915 to 1918 and during World War I, an experience which significantly altered his approach to Wozzeck.

The plot, which depicts the lives of the inhabitants and soldiers of a rural German-speaking town, follows the title character as he is abused by the soldiers and deals with the infidelity of his wife, who he eventually murders before drowning himself. The opera ends with Wozzeck's son obliviously continuing to play with the other children as word of his murdered mother begins to spread. The opera finally premiered by the Berlin State Opera, Erich Kleiber conducting, on December 14, 1925, eleven years after Berg began work. It is considered the first avant-garde opera, and it famously employs atonality and Sprechgesang, although it does make use of leitmotifs and some classic forms to create some unity and coherence throughout the music and plot. The opera is performed often in both staged and concert settings. Instrumentation: 4.4(4th dEH).4+BCl.3+CBsn: 4.4.4.1: Timp(2).Perc(3-4): Clst.Hp: Str (4-4-3-3-3 in set): Banda (3 banda configurations used, but all banda players may be pulled from the pit orchestra): OnStg Pno: Vocal Soli (12 roles: STrebleATTTTBarBarBarBB): Mixed Choir.