Above: baritone Matthias Goerne, photo by Marco Borggreve
Thursday March 6th, 2014 - It isn't often that one has an opportunity to experience Alban Berg's WOZZECK live in two performances - by two of the world's greatest opera companies - in the course of a single week's time. Last Friday, Dmitry and I were at Carnegie Hall for the Vienna State Opera's concert version of the opera, and tonight we were at The Met where James Levine was conducting one of his masterpieces with a rather controversial announced cast.
I believe this revival of WOZZECK replaced a planned revival of PARSIFAL with a cast that was to have included Deborah Voigt, Thomas Hampson and Simon O'Neill; somehow the Wagner was dropped in favor of the Berg (which is of course a Levine specialty). Voigt, Hampson and O'Neill made the jump to the 20th century masterwork, unleashing a barrage of negative comments from local opera fans: Ms. Voigt being considered 'all wrong' for Marie, and Mr. Hampson thought to be too intellectual and sophisticated to be a convincing Wozzeck. There were never any doubts raised about Mr. O'Neill, and in the event his performance as the Drum Major was outstanding.
In a mid-afternoon day-of-performance announcement, Mr. Hampson removed himself from the equation, citing illness. The Met had the good fortune to secure Matthias Goerne, who just sang the role in the Carnegie Hall performance, to step in. Goerne had sung a recital last night but agreed to help The Met out after testing his voice this morning. He reportedly spent the afternoon rehearsing with Maestro Levine. Mr. Goerne had not sung at The Met since 2005; his last appearances here were as Papageno in ZAUBERFLOETE.
Though the House was far from full, those who were there were treated to a spectacular rendering of the score by The Maestro and his Met Orchestra. David Chan, concert-master sans pareil, was on duty, spinning out some tonally ravishing passages. Levine turns this jagged opera into a lyrical feast, drawing out melodic threads from the dense tapestry with innate wizardry. From whispered delicacies to monumental walls of sound, this was a miracle of a performance.
Matthias Goerne had already proven himself a vocally impressive Wozzeck at the Carnegie Hall performance last week. He sang the role just as marvelously at The Met tonight; though new to the staging he gave a very convincing dramatic portrayal. Levine - and Goerne's onstage colleagues - gave the baritone wonderful support and energy. It was a true triumph and will hopefully lead to Goerne's increased presence at The Met.
If you had told me yesterday that I'd be searching for a photo of Deborah Voigt for my blog this morning, I might have smirked. The soprano, who has gone thru an extended bad patch in recent seasons, had seemed like such an unlikely choice for Marie. Over the past few years, her singing has become increasingly pallid, and she has never really been considered a first-class operatic actress. But tonight she proved the nay-sayers (myself included) wrong with a performance far more potent than we might have imagined her capable of.
Voigt mined the expressionistic aspects of the music convincingly; the voice seemed stronger and far more resonant in the lower reaches than it has for some time. The steely top notes were impressively hurled into the House - no one really expects much beauty of tone in this music - and she found a nice vein of lyricism in the more tender passages with her son. She showed good dramatic involvement and, despite being too neatly coiffed, she created the character on her own terms - quite different from such great Maries as Silja, Behrens and Waltraud Meier, but valid nonetheless.
If Ms. Voigt can maintain this level of vocalism, she might venture into some new roles: Judith in BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE and Fricka and Waltraute in the RING Cycle come to mind (it's a tradition in Europe for Brunnhildes to move into the 'lower' roles in the Cycle after hanging up their spear and shield); also The Met has a handsome and little-used production of ERWARTUNG - an opera which the soprano has already sung in concert - and that could be brought back for her, paired maybe with Stravinsky's OEDIPUS REX. At any rate, whatever comes next for her, it was nice to see Ms. Voigt experience a success this evening.
The casting was well-nigh perfect all down the line: we could savor Simon O'Neill's strutting, strongly-sung Drum Major and the marvelous Tamara Mumford's plushy-voiced Margret. A couple of grand singing-actors - Peter Hoare and Clive Bayley - were just perfect as the Captain and the Doctor respectively. And they both really sang their music superbly, without letting 'character-effects' dominate the vocal line. Russell Thomas, Mark Showalter, Philippe Castagner, Daniel Clark Smith and Raymond Aparentado all gave fine performances, and a special bravo! to Richard Bernstein whose big-voiced, physically vivid interpretation of the 1st Apprentice's scene became an outstanding vignette in this remarkable evening.
For all the onstage excellence, it's really to Maestro Levine that so much credit is due for making this WOZZECK such a thrilling experience; every time this opera has been given at The Met since he started conducting it, it's been the highlight of the season.
The Met have now rigged up the pit with a special ramp and podium for the wheelchair-bound conductor; that they have gone to the trouble and expense to do so makes me feel confident that Maestro Levine will continue to give us great nights at the opera in the coming seasons.
Metropolitan Opera House
Mach 6, 2014
WOZZECK
Alban Berg
Wozzeck.................Matthias Goerne
Marie...................Deborah Voigt
Captain.................Peter Hoare
Drum Major..............Simon O'Neill
Doctor..................Clive Bayley [Debut]
Andres..................Russell Thomas
Margret.................Tamara Mumford
Apprentice..............Richard Bernstein
Apprentice..............Mark Schowalter
Fool....................Philippe Castagner
Soldier.................Daniel Clark Smith
Townsman................Raymond Aparentado
Child...................Anthony Reznikovsky [Debut]
Piano Solo..............Bradley Moore [Stage debut]
Conductor...............James Levine