Heavens exploding above
I think I am interested in awkward operas. Operas in which there are unsolved riddles. Operas in which there is a space, both musically and thematically for a world to evolve and be imagined around the story. There has to be a challenge somewhere in it. It has to be a machine for thinking.
For every project that I do, there needs to be a meeting of the material and the project. So there has to be a theme in the project that can be thought about in a particular material. With Lulu it was the black ink, which is both a kind of blood of all the victims but also something of the harshness of woodcuts and the possibility of tearing the sheets of paper and fragmenting the desire, which is the heart of Lulu. With Wozzeck there was something much more about the graininess, the grey sky of a charcoal drawing. Lulu is an entirely interior opera and Wozzeck, by and large, is an exterior opera. And for the landscape – and particularly the skies – there is something about the graininess of the charcoal drawing that seemed essential. Within the production, there is the large cyclorama, the backdrop, in which the projections which we show are the imaginings of Wozzeck – of explosions, of fires, which are there in the Buchner play from 1837 but which are in a sense a premonition of what came to be in 1914, the period in which Berg was writing the opera. These massive explosions, going up to the heavens, are a premonition of the First World War.
To do a project like Wozzeck, an essential part of it are two workshops in my studio in Johannesburg, in which I asked some dancers and some actors to come and work with us, with a team of set and lighting designers, in which we work with recordings but try to see how we could stage a scene. What would be the language of the movement of the performers. One has to think, what is the violence in Wozzeck that takes him into the state in which he would kill that which he loves most: Marie? Obviously, it is a long tradition of men’s violence against women. It’s a long tradition of people who are depressed, finding their only relief in violence, to make themselves feel alive – either to suffer violence or to inflict violence. So long before he kills Marie, there is part of him that knows the way it is going to end.
-
+ Credits
Composer
Alban Berg
Librettist
Alban Berg
Director
William Kentridge
Co-director
Luc De Wit
Projection designer
Catherine Meyburgh
Set designer
Sabine Theunissen
Costume designer
Greta Goiris
Lighting designer
Urs Schönebaum
Approx. 1 hour 40 minutes
World Premiere:
Staatsoper, Berlin, 1925
This production:
Salzburg Festival, August 2017. Metropolitan Opera, New York, December 2019. Sydney
Opera House, January 2020
Making
In my studio in Johannesburg we made a cardboard cupboard (I’d just seen an exhibition of the works of the Polish director, Tadeusz Kantor). In this cupboard we placed two actors (in gasmasks) throwing a doll (with a gasmask) back and forth. We cut a trap door in the back of the cupboard and had a stream of twenty people impossibly exit the cupboard. We put the cupboard on wheels and sent it across the studio with a small brass band in it (and falling out of it). We filmed our brass band in silhouette. We placed an actor as an orator on the roof of the cupboard – and hastily brought him back to ground – the cupboard was collapsing. We made a horse out of two actors, a broomstick and a flag. We strapped wooden planks to the actors’ legs and made them dance (a polka) with chairs as partners. No action was so stupid as we would not try it. I made drawings of landscapes, of blasted buildings, of severed heads, of wounded bodies, of night skies. I pinned the heads to the landscapes. We projected these inside the cupboard and on the studio wall behind the cupboard.
Our only hope was that in the openness of looking, of listening to the music of the opera, connections would be found, or rather moments would be recognised. Connections between an image and the music or between a gesture and the libretto.
Opera
"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK"Wozzeck" premiere, Salzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, August 2017
Photo: Ruth Walz
WOZZECK
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WK_16_161_Drawing_1087 - Drawing for Wozzeck (4)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Velin Arches Cover White (400 gsm)121 x 160 cm
WK_16_160_Drawings_Woyzzeck_0410 - Drawing for Wozzeck (5)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Velin Arches Cover White (400 gsm)121 x 160 cm
WK_16_160_Drawings_Woyzzeck_0403 - Drawing for Wozzeck (6)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Velin Arches Cover White (400 gsm)121 x 160 cm
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WK_16_160_Drawings_Woyzzeck_0387 - Drawing for Wozzeck (9)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper56.5 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0104 - Drawing for Wozzeck (14)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper60 x 80 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0124 - Drawing for Wozzeck (16)2016Charcoal, pastel and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper53 x 78.5 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0079 - Drawing for Wozzeck (78)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper56.5 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0085 - Drawing for Wozzeck (18)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper54 x 78.2 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0102 - Drawing for Wozzeck (19)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper53 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0100 - Drawing for Wozzeck (20)2016Charcoal on Hahnemühle paper54.5 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0087 - Drawing for Wozzeck (23)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper54 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0089 - Drawing for Wozzeck (26)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper52.6 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0083 - Drawing for Wozzeck (17)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemuhle paper56.5 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0058 - Drawing for Wozzeck (28)2016Charcoal on Hahnemühle paper54.4 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0068 - Drawing for Wozzeck (29)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper53 x 78.5 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0081 - Drawing for Wozzeck (30)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper57 x 78 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0075 - Drawing for Wozzeck (33)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper36.8 x 53.5 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0077 - Drawing for Wozzeck (35)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper121 x 160 cm
WK_17_181_Draw_9700 - Drawing for Wozzeck (42)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper120 x 160 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0042 - Drawing for Wozzeck (43)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper121 x 160 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0049 - Drawing for Wozzeck (45)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemuhle paper120 x 160 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0112 - Drawing for Wozzeck (85)2017Charcoal on paper80 x 120.5 cm
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WK_17_180_Drawing_3499 - Drawing for Wozzeck (89)2017Charcoal and red pencil on paper80 x 121 cm
WK_17_180_Drawing_3507 - Drawing for Wozzeck (90)2017Charcoal and red pencil on paper80 x 120 cm
WK_17_180_Drawing_3523 - Drawing for Wozzeck (73)2017Charcoal on paper80 x 120 cm
WK_17_180_Drawing_3522 - Drawing for Wozzeck (Title)2019Indian ink on collage of found pages101.5 x 61.5 cm
19_218_2587 - Drawing for Wozzeck (32)2016Charcoal and red pencil on Hahnemühle paper54.2 x 78.5 cm
WK_17_168_Wozzeck_0063 - Wozzeck, 2017Opera in one act, 1 hour 40 minutesMusic: Alban Berg, Libretto: Alban BergDirector: William Kentridge, Co-director: Luc De WitSalzburger Festspiele, Salzburg, 8 August 2017Photo: Ruth Walz
Wozzeck Performance - Drawing for Wozzeck (70)2017Charcoal on paper121 x 160 cm
WK_17_178_Wozzeck_Drawing_Charcoal_9758
Credits: Wozzeck
Composer
Alban Berg
Librettist
Alban Berg
Director
William Kentridge
Co-director
Luc De Wit
Projection designer
Catherine Meyburgh
Set designer
Sabine Theunissen
Costume designer
Greta Goiris
Lighting designer
Urs Schönebaum
Approx. 1 hour 40 minutes
World Premiere:
Staatsoper, Berlin, 1925
This production:
Salzburg Festival, August 2017. Metropolitan Opera, New York, December 2019. Sydney
Opera House, January 2020