Wozzeck in the Finnish National Opera, the 9th of April, 2019

Alban Berg’s opera ”Wozzeck” is not exactly known for its fun factor. This opera – now seen in the Finnish National Opera – is based on a play by Georg Büchner and the play is based on a true story. Alban Berg himself wrote the libretto based on Büchner’s play.

Wozzeck has an affair with a woman – Marie – and they have a son. Life is poor and hard and Wozzeck’s mental health is crumbling. Marie cheats on him with another man and Wozzeck kills Marie in jealous rage. In the end insane Wozzeck drowns himself.

I am pretty sure that Berg’s modern music is not to everybody’s taste, but conductor Hannu Lintu and the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera were probably the best possible combination to perform this challenging music. Great result! Out of the soloists I – once again – admired the most Helena Juntunen in the role of Marie. In this role she had a chance to show her whole vocal range: to be quite honest I do not know if I have ever heard her sing such low notes. My attention span rose to upper spheres whenever Juntunen was singing.

This opera is a Chicago Lyric Opera production and the original director was Sir David McVicar, but the director of the Helsinki re-production was Daniel Ellis. When an opera consists of short scenes, it is very easy to make a fragmented opera, but in this production that was not the case. I really liked the solution to separate the scenes by literally running a low curtain to cover of the stage and running it open for the next scene. Set and costume design by Vicki Mortimer fitted the production beautifully and light design by Paule Constable was an inseparable part of the opera.

This opera may no be the best possible one for a friend of traditional Italian opera, but for everybody else I can recommend it. The theme is dark and tough, but the performance is interesting.