[6/18/2011] Preview: "Wretches like us" -- Berg's "Wozzeck" (2): Introducing Wozzeck (continued)

Hildegard Behrens as Marie and Alan Held as Wozzeck in San Francisco, 1999


HERE'S THE FULL OPENING SCENE OF WOZZECK --
IN ENGLISH, GERMAN, AND ITALIAN

BERG: Wozzeck, Op. 7: Act I, Scene 1

[NOTE: This is the singing translation by Richard Stokes used in the Chandos English-language recording.]

Scene 1. The CAPTAIN's room. Early morning. The CAPTAIN is sitting on a chair in front of a mirror. WOZZECK is shaving the CAPTAIN.

CAPTAIN: Slowly, Wozzeck, slowly!
One thing at a time!
[Anxiously] You make me quite giddy . . . [covers himself with his hand; steadies himself; WOZZECK stops what he is doing] What can I do with the extra ten minutes leisure time if you finish early today?
[WOZZECK continues shaving with interruptions.]
Wozzeck, consider: you still have thirty years ahead of you, remember! Thirty years! That's three hundred sixty months, you know. And then all those days and hours and minutes. What can you possibly want with such a vast expanse of time? [Serious again] Sort yourself out, Wozzeck!
WOZZECK: Of course, Herr Hauptmann!
CAPTAIN [mystically]: It makes me afraid for the world, to think of eternity. Eternity -- that's eternal, you understand. Now, all of a sudden, it's not eternal, merely one moment, yes, one moment! Wozzeck, it frightens me when I consider that he world revolves in just one day! Whenever I see millwheels go round, I am laid low with melancholia!
WOZZECK: Of course, Herr Hauptmann!
CAPTAIN: Wozzeck, you always appear so harassed! A decent man doesn't fret; a decent man, with a conscience beyond reproach, always moves slowly . . .
[Almost spoken] Say something then, Wozzeck.

[Gigue]

And what about the weather?
WOZZECK: It's bad, Herr Hauptmann! Wind!
CAPTAIN: I sense it; there's something so blust'ry out there. Such a wind sets my teeth on edge, ,just like a mouse. [Artfully] I think the wind is blowing from south-north?
WOZZECK: Of course, Herr Hauptmann!
CAPTAIN [laughs loudly] Ha ha! Ha ha ha! South-north!
[Even more loudly] Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha! Oh, you are dumb, quite absurdly dumb.
[track 2]
[Sympathetically] Wozzeck, you are a decent man, and yet . . . you have no moral sense!

[Quasi Gavotte]

You don't conduct yourself morally! (You follow? A most delightful word.)
[With pathos] You have a child who is not blessed by our God's church.
WOZZECK: Of course . . . [Stops]
CAPTAIN: As our regimental chaplain always preaches to the men: "Not bless'd by God's holy church" (the words are not my own).

[Double I]

WOZZECK: Herr Hauptmann, the Lord above will not spurn the poor little creature, just because the "Amen" was not spoken before the mite was made. The Lord said, "Suffer the children to come to me!"

[Double II]

CAPTAIN {jumping up in a rage]: What do you mean? And what sort of curious answer is that? You make me quite confused! [His voice cracks.] When I say 'You," then I mean "You," "You" . . .

[Air]

Wretches like us! You see, Herr Hauptmann, wealth, wealth! Without money! Let one of us try to bring his own kind into the world in a fine moral way! We have flesh and blood too!
Oh, if I were well bred, and had a top hat, a pocket watch and a monocle and a proper accent . . . then I would be virtuous too! It must be wonderful to be virtuous, Herr Hauptmann. But I'm only a poor man! Men like us always will be ill-fated in this world and in any other world! I think, if we ever got to Heaven, we'd all have to manufacture thunder!

[Prelude in retrograde: Introduction]

CAPTAIN [somewhat nonplussed]: All right, all right! [Pacifying] I know. You are a decent man, [exaggerating] a decent man, [more controlled] only you think too much. That's bad. You always appear so harassed.
[Anxiously] Our discussion has quite fatigued me. Run along, but don't rush ahead! Down the avenue and back to the barracks. [WOZZECK is about to depart in his usual haste.] And keep in the middle, remember, nice and slowly, yes slowly!
[WOZZECK exits]

CURTAIN

[in English] Stuart Kale (t), the Captain; Andrew Shore (b), Wozzeck; Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Daniel, cond. Chandos, recorded July 1-18, 2002

[in German] Gerhard Stolze (t), the Captain; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (b), Wozzeck; Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded March-Apr. 1965

[in Italian] Hugues Cuénod (t), the Captain; Tito Gobbi (b), Wozzeck; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Nino Sanzogno, cond. Live performance, Sept. 30, 1954


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

You'd think after meeting Marie last night and Wozzeck tonight, the plan was to bring them together tomorrow. Alas, no. But we are going to hear more of each of them, and hear how the whole sorry drama ends.


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