Sunday Classics preview: Berg's "Wozzeck" -- (1) Introducing Marie

BERG: Wozzeck, Op. 7: Act I, Scene 3 (excerpt)

What will you do now, poor lamb?
You have a child but no man!
Ah, why worry, poor mite?
I'll sing through the live-long night.
Hush-a-bye baby, my darling boy,
nobody cares about us!

Josephine Barstow (s), Marie; Philharmonia Orchestra, Paul Daniel, cond. Chandos, recorded July 1-18, 2002

by Ken

We're going to meet poor woebegone Wozzeck in tomorrow's preview. I thought we would start tonight with Marie, the mother of his child. This is her first scene in the opera, and we'll hear a fuller version in the click-through. For now I wanted you to hear just this bit of lullaby, sung by a wonderful artist, Dame Josephine Barstow.

It's just a shame she didn't get to record Marie until 2002, when she was pushing 62. Earlier on, considering that she was not only a lovely singer but a strikingly lovely woman and a terrific actress, she must have been a stunning Marie.

(I remember being close to bowled over by her when she came to the Met as, of all things, Musettta in Puccini's La Bohème -- so striking, vocally and dramatically, in a performance that otherwise didn't have a whole lot of drama going, that it was hard to say exactly that she was wasted in the role. It was the first time it occurred to me that the role has some real dramatic possibilities.)


FOR PROPER VERSIONS OF THIS HAUNTING
SCENE IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN, CLICK HERE

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