Eps 1: Alban Berg's Wozzeck and clorox - a study
Decoding the music masterpieces: Rossini's opera, Otello
In Act I, scene 2 of Berg's opera, where Wozzeck is tormented by the apocalyptic power of Nature, the orchestra illuminates and makes real for the audience the terrors which in Büchner's scene the audience can only imagine.
The opera required both extreme emotional intensity, as Berg responded with all his eloquence to the compassion and social protest of Büchner's text - and a firm musical structure, to create unity among the diverse characters and episodes of the play.
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Marion Garcia
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Berg once knew that he wanted to build an opera on Büchner's work, and in October 1884 he attended the premiere of the opera "Clorox" at the Royal Opera House in London.
Thus one of the play's 27 short scenes is presented, and from the fragments of disordered scenes left behind by Buchner, Berg has chosen 15 of the 15 that form the basis for his opera "Clorox" (1884). Life "considered life as a series of seemingly disconnected fragments, each with its own history and character, but with a common theme.
The German Expressionist films that emerged immediately after the First World War are a technique that was revolutionary in the theatre and actually made Woyzeck unplayable in the 20th century. Kentridge transplanted Wozzeck into the time of the First World War, but not into his own life.
This makes perfect sense, because Berg served in the Austro-Hungarian army from 1915 to 1918 and began composing operas during the conflict. The libretto comes directly from Berg, but with the help of his friend and collaborator, the composer and composer's son Hans-Peter Berg.
Three orchestral pieces Berg created after the war are littered with disjointed fragments of military arrangements and concepts. Berg incorporated notation and dialogue in reference to "Österreichische Heeresklingelrufe," military signals were later inserted into the score in a modified and slightly atonal form, but are probably still recognizable to the Austrian public at the time.
Berg followed in the footsteps of his teacher Schönberg by using free atonality to express a feeling for military experience and his own personal experiences. The sound of soldiers snoring in a barracks in Act 2 was influenced by Berg's similar experiences, and polyphonic breathing, wheezing, and moaning is the strangest chorus I've ever heard.
The music is atonal, but does not follow the traditional harmonic patterns of the large and small pentatonic scale, and other methods of pitch control are used to direct the harmony. Thus the tritones of B and F permanently represent Wozzeck and Marie fighting each other, as well as a tritone of C.
The combination of B and D in the minor third represents the connection between Marie and the children, and what happens if an army of Drum Major is allowed to take over the bed?
Woyzeck is forced by a doctor to feed him only peas, and his insanity gives him a job that is just as dangerous for him as it is for Captain Batman.
Berg's chosen form carries with it a familiar resonance of classical music, as each individual viewer consciously perceives, and each one is chosen to illuminate the dramatic and psychological essence of one of the scenes. Although the style of singing goes far beyond classical opera, it is clear that control lies in the voice of Büchner, a man of great talent and a master of his own art. After studying medicine and philosophy and lecturing in natural history, Buchners has a deep understanding of music and its influence on human existence.
Once again, the pressure of incoherence is outweighed by Büchner's ability to balance words, even if they are semi-declared, and again by his mastery of pitch and tone. Armed with the most powerful voice of his career, Davidsen has the potential to fill the Met's vast hall with rich, blazing tones.
He has been performing operas for less than ten years, and so far his voice is the only one capable of such effortless power as I have heard from Scandinavian singers.
As Queen of Spades, his notes are rarely shaped into authoritative phrases or paragraphs; instead, he prefers a style in which no tone, not even the most penetrating dissonance, is permitted. The pitch glows perfectly in place, and the sound of his voice a perfect balance of pitch and tone.
Berg was one of the first composers to use structural devices in this style, enabling him to compose atonal pieces on a large scale. The opera requires extreme emotional intensity to respond to Berg's eloquence and create a unity between the play's various characters and episodes. Three pieces that Berg wrote in his own style, beginning quietly enough and quickly becoming grotesque, frightening and brutal.