This tragedy-driven opera, based on Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck (1837), tells the story of Wozzeck, a soldier brutally mistreated by the military and by society itself. His story begins when impoverished and desperate, he volunteers to serve as a human experiment for a cruel, fame-seeking Doctor. Subjected to extreme diets and bizarre medical trials, Wozzeck begins to suffer terrifying hallucinations. His misery deepens when Marie, his girlfriend and the mother of his child, engages in an affair with Drum Major, who taunts Wozzeck with his triumph. Tormented by jealousy, poverty, and mental disintegration, Wozzeck murders Marie and then, overwhelmed by guilt and madness, drowns himself in a pond.
The opera is somewhat based in historical reality. Johann Christian Woyzeck (1780–1824), a former soldier, was executed in Leipzig for murdering his wife. Berg transforms this grim true story into a devastating psychological drama that exposes the cruelty of social institutions and the vulnerability of those crushed beneath them.
Performed without an interval and lasting around 100 minutes, Wozzeck is a groundbreaking masterpiece of twentieth-century music drama. Berg composed it between 1914 and 1921, directly amid the upheaval of the First World War, and the tension and instability of the era are unmistakable in the score. He employs atonal writing and Sprechgesang, a vocal style between speech and song, to reflect the fractured mental states of the characters. Yet, despite its modernist language, the opera is meticulously structured, incorporating forms such as fantasia and fugue in Act II, a lullaby in Act I, and the mysterious, achingly beautiful moonlight music of Act III.
Kazushi Ono led the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with remarkable command. His expansive, flowing gestures give the music a sense of inevitability, while his precise control bring out the finest details of Berg’s complex orchestration. Ono’s long association with Berg’s works, demonstrated by his award-winning tenure at the Opéra National de Lyon where he conducted Lulu, is evident throughout. The climax of Act I, in which the Drum Major seduces Marie, is especially compelling: the orchestra’s fortissimo surge powerfully conveys the brutality and arrogance of the moment.
Thomas Johannes Mayer is riveting in the title role. Wozzeck’s inner, tormented emotions are continuously screaming within Berg’s expressionist musical language, and together with the music, Thomas’s portrayal of Wozzeck’s humiliation and mental collapse is so emotionally truthful that the opera felt more akin to a psychological play rather than a traditional opera. His reaction to insults and abuse was painfully believable, immersing the audience into Wozzeck’s suffering.
Jennifer Davis gives a moving performance as Marie, capturing her inner conflict and remorse after her betrayal. John Daszak’s Drum Major was a chilling embodiment of violence and entitlement, particularly in the savage scene where he beats Wozzeck.
Richard Jones’s direction was the highlight of the production. The murder scene, drenched entirely in vivid red lighting designed by Lucy Carter, highlighted the consequences of social indifference. The yellow uniforms designed by Antony McDonald, worn by the soldiers reveal an oppressive world in which individuality is deliberately suppressed through imposed uniformity. The clever final image of the stage (as to not spoil anything, no details will be shared…) served as a stark reminder that the tragedy continues, the cycle unbroken.
Cruel, uncompromising, and profoundly moving, Jones’ Wozzeck places Berg’s opera as one of the most essential performances in confronting the darker side of humanity.
Venue: The New National Theatre Tokyo
Composer: Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Libretto: Alban Berg after Büchner
Director: Richard Jones
Conductor: Kazushi Ono
Set and Costume designer: Antony McDonald
Choreographer: Camille A. Brown
Lighting designer: Lucy Carter
Cast includes Thomas Johannes Mayer, Jennifer Davis, Tsumaya Hidekazu and John Daszak
Until 24th November 2025
Photograph: ©Rikimaru Hotta/The New National Theatre Tokyo
Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes (No interval)