William Kentridge's production of Berg’s Wozzeck has it all: wonderfully imaginative and disturbing designs, terrific acting and singing plus fabulous orchestral playing.
William Kentridge's film, a patchwork collage depicting Shostakovich's complicated relationship with Stalin, is played as film score to his Tenth Symphony at the Southbank's genre-crossing Multitudes festival.
Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony is a massive and aptly complicated work to which William Kentridge’s film adds contextual layers of stop-motion animation and vintage footage in a surreal nightmare of tyranny.
Despite theatrical drawbacks, this Wozzeck is heartily recommended due to Yannick Nézet-Séguin's staggering understanding of all facets of Berg's score.
A skilfully constructed production, and one that plays with the our perspectives. Whether the images are flashbacks from a war-troubled Wozzeck or a Büchner-esque portent of the horrors to come is left for the audience to decide.
Benedetta Saglietti hold a degree in music history. She is the author of Beethoven, ritratti e immagini: uno studio sull’iconografia (Beethoven, Portraits and Images: An Iconographical Study) and a contributor of program notes for musical institutions. Her book reviews appeared in scholarly journals such as Studi Filosofici, Síneris, Revista de Musicología, Ad Parnassum. Selected articles and essays are here.
Sign in to use alerts, your personal diary/wishlist, to save your recent searches, to comment on articles and reviews or if you want to input events.
Please fill in your email address, then click on one of the two buttons.