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Berg: Wozzeck [DVD] [2001]
 
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Berg: Wozzeck [DVD] [2001]

DVD ~ Hildegard Behrens
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £24.99
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Customers buy this item with Berg: Lulu - Glyndebourne Festival Opera [DVD] [1996] DVD ~ Christine Schafer

Berg: Wozzeck [DVD] [2001] + Berg: Lulu - Glyndebourne Festival Opera [DVD] [1996]
Price For Both: £38.47

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Berg: Wozzeck [DVD] [2001]
54% buy the item featured on this page:
Berg: Wozzeck [DVD] [2001] 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£24.49
Daniel Barenboim - Berg - Wozzeck [DVD] [2008]
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Daniel Barenboim - Berg - Wozzeck [DVD] [2008]
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Product details

  • Actors: Hildegard Behrens, Franz Grundheber, Philip Langridge, Walter Raffeiner, Heinz Zednik
  • Format: Classical, PAL
  • Language German
  • Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: Exempt
  • Studio: ARTHAUS
  • DVD Release Date: 15 Nov 2001
  • Run Time: 103 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005U1WK
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 53,835 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
The bleakness of Berg's operatic masterpiece Wozzeck is relatively easy to bring off: the plot, after all, tells of a man who is bullied, cuckolded and mocked by the society around him. What are harder to realise are the gallows humour and pitch-black comedy--and it's those qualities, along with the brilliant acting and edge-of-seat orchestral playing, that make this 1987 Vienna Staatsoper staging a stunning televisual operatic production.

Everything works: the simple yet evocative sets translate effortlessly to the small screen, the pacing of the 15 short scenes is worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster and the singing is beautifully focussed. Baritone Franz Grundheber is vocally and dramatically outstanding as Wozzeck, cringing and shuffling around the stage in a bewildered hang-dog manner and yet never losing sight of the character's humanity. Hildegard Behrens (Marie) has rarely sounded better, and switches between Straussian lushness and spiky sluttishness with ease. The direction is also full of wonderful touches, such as Wozzeck squeezing the Captain's nose while he's shaving him (and making his voice sound like a kazoo), and the musicians of the on-stage band being fully integrated into the tavern scene. Ironic, emotionally rich, musically faultless--this one's got it all.

On the DVD: the production works beautifully on DVD, and bar one or two moments in the second tavern scene (Act 3, Scene 3) the voices rarely move out of microphone range. There are subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish and four trailers for other Arthaus DVD operas, but no other special features. --Warwick Thomson

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Arthaus Music trailer (16 mins)
32-page booklet
PCM Stereo
Menu languages: GB, D, F, SP
Subtitle languages: D, GB, F, SP
Picture format: 4:3
Region code: 2,5

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5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A first-rate performance of a masterpiece, 26 Jun 2005
By A Customer
A very moving and insightful interpretation of a 'difficult' work. Grundheber excels in his portrayal of a downtrodden,poor man who is driven to madness by persecution and a foreboding reflected in the blood-red moon of the countryside scenes. The nature of Wozzeck's persecution varies: from the teasing and innuendo of the Captain to the cold scientific curiosity of the Doctor, who can only see human beings as interesting scientific objects; and then, at the opposite extreme, there is the physical humiliation meted out by the cocksure Drum Major who invades the barracks at night, exulting at his seduction of Marie.

Cruelty is the main theme of 'Wozzeck', a cruelty that is innate to Buchner's world, one of rigid hierarchy and military rank. It eventually infects even the most down-trodden of all, Wozzeck himself, who can only respond by killing someone even weaker than himself, Marie. Even the children are being moulded by it, when they off-handedly tell her little boy that his mother is dead and then rush off to see her body. Will things by any different when they grow up? Marie's son is the ultimate victim, the innocent who is too young to understand. A heart-breaking end.

Inevitably, one is drawn to comparing Grundheber with Fischer-Dieskau's classical interpretation, and he is not bettered here: F-D was always a bit patrician, I felt. Grundheber comes over better as one of Buchner's 'poor folk', too poor to conform to the 'morality' of the Captain's social class.

Behrens sings beautifully, shading her powerful voice down for Marie's prayer (one of the high points of this opera). Zednik conveys the right tone of paranoia and dread of death, reflected in the falsetto swoops of the opening scene, and his terror when the Doctor diagnoses his condition - yet another type of cruelty.

Abbado's accompaniment is outstanding, especially in the final intermezzo where the dramatic situation forces Berg to return to tonality (D Minor) to express the true horror of Marie's death and Wozzeck's drowning. Incidentally, this production restores the more logical 'pissing in the street' of Buchner's play in place of the rather coy 'coughing' that Berg was forced to use.

The staging is always appropriate: simple, naturalistic, avoiding some of the rather fancy Doctor's scenes of some productions (this is, after all, Saxony in the 1820s). The economy of Berg's setting of Buchner's play was well caught in this production. The pub scene was excellently choreographed, despite the large number of people on the stage: once again, one is constantly reminded of Berg's Viennese culture in the orchestration and the music of this scene.

To sum up, a brilliant DVD. I had one or two little 'jumps' - nothing to worry about particularly - in a couple of the intermezzi. No extras, but then Wozzeck speaks for itself.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute gem in ALL respects!!!, 5 Jan 2009
By Alexander Z. Damyanovich "azdamyan" (Eugenia (Flesherton), Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
For once, here is a film of a live performance (in the Wiener Staatsoper - Vienna State Opera) where the stage-director has truly submitted himself to Berg's demands and needs. Herr Dreser manages it all without needing in the least to change time-periods (or costumes) or impose his ideas upon Berg's grisly yet appropriate (at times even beautiful! - try the lullaby section of Act I Scene 3, or Scenes 1 and 2 of Act 3 for proof thereof!!) score for this awful tale. This production truly brings out the whole truth in each one of the characters (truly, the Captain, "Doctor" and Drum-Major richly come across as the slime they are!!!) such that one can't but sympathise with the poor loser of an anti-hero that Franz Wozzeck is (all his circumstances are so totally against him and Marie even as they try to be good! - those inescapable realities combined with their intrinsic weaknesses as characters - Marie's lust, Wozzeck's insanity - finally overwhelm them both). It only could be improved upon (aside from some stage-movements and sequences related thereto) by an actual studio Hollywood-style film (under the directorship of a Franco Zeffirelli or Cecil B. DeMilne, perhaps Mel Gibson {not knowing this last-mentioned's work at this time} in terms of cine-video/photography); otherwise it's excellently done - and those of us interested in the orchestral workings get to benefit seeing this beautiful ensemble (the parent-ensemble of the Vienna Philharmonic!) and Abbado's work in the critical interludes.

In an era where directors are encouraged to trample all over composers' directions (even in the most ludicrous ways imaginable!), this film is a salutary shot in the arm and a joy to see for those more traditionally minded like myself!! Only one set I could criticise as being somewhat too stark (Act I Scene 2 could have been a bit more elaborate with its background depiction of the town...); also, there are a few cases where the composers' directions could have been followed even more stringently - however, although it's not perfect, it's very good indeed!!!

While I could wish for a few things likewise to be different with the conducting (personal taste - also, am I right in my growing suspicion that, somehow, DVD audio isn't quite completely as good as that of a real CD?!??), I think everybody does a superb job!! Top kudos for me go to Hildegard Behrens as Marie as well as to both Aage Haugland as the quack "Doktor" and Heinz Zednik (in spite of a few wrong notes that want to go tonal...) as the Captain, though nobody is a slouch here in the least. Perhaps one could have wished for a little more poetry in the title rôle (something Fischer-Dieskau gives us with Böhm); however, I'm most favourably impressed by Frau Behrens!! I not only love her voice and musicianship (also a superb actress - she's more than totally believable in her rôle!), also most appealing is the way she handles the Sprechstimme portions in Act III Scene 1 - better in my opinion than Evelyn Lear for Karl Böhm (it's better to err on the side of singing when handling that ferociously-difficult kind of declamation than on the side of speaking, and Behrens' feeling for it is so classy!!!!). Bravissima, wirklich Prächtig!!!

I most strongly hope that the equivalent DVD version will be reissued ASAP. When it comes out, GET IT!!!!
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