Sunday Classics preview: "Wretches like us" -- Berg's "Wozzeck": (2) Introducing Wozzeck

Act I, Scene 2: Franz Hawlata as Wozzeck and Joel Sorensen as his friend Andres in San Diego, 2007

BERG: Wozzeck, Op. 7: Act I, Opening Scene: "Wretches like us!"

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!

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

by Ken

Last night we met our "heroine," Marie, flirting with the ruggedly handsome Drum Major, then returning her attention to her poor bastard baby boy. Now we go back to the opening scene, where the boy's father, the soldier Franz Wozzeck, is under siege from the Captain he's trying to shave.

We're going to hear the whole scene in the click-through -- from this same English-language recording, from the DG Wozzeck from which we heard Marie's Act I solo scene last night, and finally in Italian (!) with the celebrated character tenor Hugues Cuénod as the Captain and Tito Gobbi as Wozzeck.


FOR THE FULL CAPTAIN-WOZZECK SCENE, CLICK HERE

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