{"id":114170,"date":"2025-05-09T14:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T18:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=114170"},"modified":"2025-05-09T15:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T19:46:30","slug":"scrutiny-kentridges-well-intentioned-but-hyperactive-production-places-context-over-individual-tragedy-in-cocs-wozzeck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/05\/09\/scrutiny-kentridges-well-intentioned-but-hyperactive-production-places-context-over-individual-tragedy-in-cocs-wozzeck\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Kentridge\u2019s Hyperactive Production Places Context Over Individual Tragedy In COC\u2019s Wozzeck"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Top
Top left: Krisztina Szab\u00f3 as Margret and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as Wozzeck in the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s production of Wozzeck, 2025 (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Canadian Opera Company: Wozzeck by Alban Berg. Michael Kupfer-Radecky, Wozzeck; Ambur Braid, Marie; Matthew Cairns, Drum Major; Michael Schade, Captain; Anthony Robin Schneider, Doctor; Krisztina Szab\u00f3, Margret; Owen McCausland, Andres; Michael Colvin, The Fool. May 8, 2025, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto. Continues to May 25; tickets here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Picture a tavern scene: two dozen chorus members cavort alongside a handful of actors, several in gas masks, moving along in broken, limping gait, lifting and shaking wooden chairs. Backstage a screen is projecting speeded-up clips of a woman being thrown from one man\u2019s arms to another one\u2019s lap. From a wooden wardrobe emerges a group of pub musicians. Two singers appear from behind them, singing distorted popular songs then drunkenly collapsing; two more (Wozzeck\u2019s mistress Marie and her seducer, the Drum Major) enter dancing and swirling as Wozzeck himself looks on in outrage and despair. The backdrop presents dense charcoal drawings and video projections.<\/p>\n

Trying to take all of this in, the eye frantically glances to and from the surtitles. And the music? On the one hand you could argue that it invites the disorienting visual barrage. On the other, you could say that it makes much of that barrage superfluous, if not infuriating.<\/p>\n

\"Ambur
Ambur Braid as Margret and Matthew Cairns as the Drum-Major in the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s production of Wozzeck, 2025 (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Kentridge Production<\/h3>\n

OK, we get it. Wozzeck is spiralling through disorientation to disintegration. He\u2019s a soldier in the German army, subject to dehumanising cruelty. Berg is writing his opera at the time of the First World War. Expressionist theatre and film are all the rage. But, at the heart of the opera is the compassionate humanity with which Berg treats his central characters \u2014 Wozzeck, Marie and their child. And, humanity is what William Kentridge\u2019s production (a co-commission of COC and the Salzburg Festival, where it premiered in 2017, Metropolitan Opera, and Opera Australia) conspicuously lacks.<\/p>\n

It deploys tremendous care and skill to emphasize the already obvious. But, in so doing it rides roughshod over such textual details in the score as Wozzeck shaving the Captain (rather than projecting a film), experiencing apocalyptic visions while collecting firewood (rather than looking aimlessly anxious), and slitting Marie\u2019s throat (rather than her belly), all of which makes a nonsense of the text and leaves one wondering whether Kentridge actually read the score or the libretto closely enough.<\/p>\n

He imposes his own signature sensory overload on the most touching passages \u2014 Marie\u2019s Bible-reading penitence, the Mahlerian orchestral interlude reflecting on the tragedy, and the final scene with the child. Did I mention that the child is \u2018played\u2019 by a Tim Burton-ish puppet? No wonder the audience reaction at the end is more perplexed than heartbroken. Berg\u2019s idea was that the orphaned child, taunted by its \u2018friends\u2019, was destined to become the next Wozzeck. Kentridge\u2019s staging could hardly have been wider of that mark.<\/p>\n

A Premonition of WWI?<\/h3>\n

Not that every production has to follow Berg\u2019s instructions to the letter (though Abbado and the Vienna State Opera did so to tremendous effect in the 1980s). But nor should it make us feel that it is merely serving the director. It should not be confusing either. In his notes, Kentridge claims that the opera serves as a premonition of the First World War. But, his images of strategic maps, exploded bodies, gas masks, wounded soldiers and nurses, downed planes, and blasting bombs, suggest that we are right in the middle of the conflict.<\/p>\n

A post-explosion interior of what looks like an art studio for a dystopian La Boh\u00e8me makes up the setting, almost unchanging in its grey and earth-colour hues during the entire 90 minutes of the opera. Kentridge treats the stage as a live canvas in which visual effects overtake the singers and even Berg\u2019s music. A bit more emphasis on how the main characters interact and less on the historical context would have made all the difference. Where Wozzeck\u2019s progressive delirium calls for visual shock, everything remains static. His exclamation that the tavern-drinkers are \u2018waltzing in blood\u2019 plays out only to a grotesque video of the dance on the on-stage canvas.<\/p>\n

\"Michael
Michael Kupfer-Radecky as Wozzeck in the Canadian Opera Company\u2019s production of Wozzeck, 2025 (Photo: Michael Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Singers<\/h3>\n

That canvas at times reflects the state of mind and words of the singers and at others supplies a parade of military characters emulating the \u2018Ministry of Silly Walks\u2019: which is not the only part of the animation that carries a Pythonesque element of mockery. Quite entertaining, and executed with talent and flair. But, how much more chilling the effect can be when the grotesquerie is fully invested in the acting? Michael Schade<\/strong>, Anthony Robin Schneider<\/strong> and Matthew Cairns<\/strong> were vocally impressive as the Captain, the Doctor and the Drum Major, but visually only semi-convincing as Wozzeck\u2019s tormentors-in-chief.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the largely static delivery works well enough for the doctor\u2019s scene \u2014 in a claustrophobic wardrobe-cum-laboratory. But, the lack of chemistry between Michael Kupfer-Radecky<\/strong>\u2019s Wozzeck and Ambur Braid<\/strong>\u2019s Marie, and of course between Marie and her puppet-child, is a fatal flaw.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

Johannes Debus<\/strong> and the COC orchestra navigate the complexities of the score confidently and sure-footedly. If they take the big orchestral interlude far too fast for its emotional impact to register, that may because they have to follow the timing of Kentridge\u2019s background animations.<\/p>\n

So, at the same time as their Eugene Onegin with minimal props and extraneous action, the COC\u2019s offering of a Wozzeck at the opposite extreme shows how many ways there are to score a near-miss.<\/p>\n

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At the heart of Wozzeck is Berg’s compassionate humanity for his central characters \u2014 and humanity is what William Kentridge\u2019s production conspicuously lacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":114174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,43,52,63],"tags":[22292,628,41760,2223,41759],"yst_prominent_words":[8540,8545,8550,6911],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/05\/Copy-of-REVIEW-2025-05-09T135902.520.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-tHs","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114170"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114187,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114170\/revisions\/114187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114170"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=114170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}