Berg: Wozzeck

Laser Disc in excellent condition, jacket shows minor shelf wear.

The Vienna State Opera conducted by Claudio Abbado. Running time 98 minutes. Special guests include Jeremy Irons and Warren Mitchell. London Symphony Orchestra is conducted by John Mauceri. Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck, which was left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Bⁿchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Bⁿchner's play on 5 May 1914, and knew at once that he wanted to base an opera on it. From the fragments of unordered scenes left by Bⁿchner, Berg selected fifteen to form a compact structure of three acts with five scenes each. He adapted the libretto himself, retaining "the essential character of the play, with its many short scenes, its abrupt and sometimes brutal language, and its stark, if haunted, realism..." The plot depicts the everyday life of soldiers and the townspeople of a rural German-speaking town."

Franz Grundheber (artist), Hidegard Behrens (artist)Claudio Abbado (conductor), Vienna State Opera (orchestra)