[Met Performance] CID:201320



Wozzeck
Metropolitan Opera House, Fri, February 19, 1965

Debut : Helga Pilarczyk, Norman Giffin, Gary Finkelstein


In English



Wozzeck (11)
Alban Berg | Alban Berg
Wozzeck
William Dooley

Marie
Helga Pilarczyk [Debut]

Captain
Gabor Carelli

Drum Major
Kurt Baum

Doctor
Donald Gramm

Andres
Charles Anthony

Margret
Janis Martin

Apprentice
Justino Díaz

Apprentice
Robert Goodloe

Fool
Andrea Velis

Soldier
William Zakariasen

Townsman
Norman Giffin [Debut]

Child
Gary Finkelstein [Debut]


Conductor
Karl Böhm


Director
Henry Butler

Designer
Caspar Neher





Performed with two intemissions.
Translation by Vida Harford and Eric Blackall
Wozzeck received four performances this season.

Review 1:

Review of Douglas Watt in the New York Daily News

Met's English in 'Wozzeck' a Puzzlement

Alban Berg's nightmarishly effective operatic curio, "Wozzeek," was heard again at the Met last night for the first time since the 1960-61 season. But it had something less than its desired impact this time out.

Karl Boehm, who led the first performances of this production in early 1959, was once more in charge in the pit. For that first occasion the conductor was permitted 24 orchestra rehearsals of Berg's massive shock score. Last evening, the orchestra sounded as if it might have had one.

Sure, Boehm, a superior conductor whose services are greatly needed at the opera house, received an ovation when he came out for Act Three. But he didn't deserve one for it was a sloppy orchestral performance in which the many diverse elements in this atonal score were often out of balance.

Language Barrier

The Met, to continue, offers "Wozzeck" in English. So what do we get? We get Helga Pilarczyk, a German soprano making her Met debut in the pivotal role of Marie, Wozzeck's wanton common-law wife.

Miss Pilarczyk acted wantonly enough but her voice, a far from pleasant one, was unable to cope with the music and was a joke in the English translation.

A New Wozzeck

William Dooley, American, in the title role for the first time, was better, but not much better. A speech defect, sibilance, frequently interfered with complete understanding of what he had to sing and say. He has a nice baritone voice but one that is not really up to the dramatic demands of this part, Nor is his acting.

Gabor Carelli, replacing an indisposed Paul Franke as the Captain on short notice, was utterly dependent on the prompter and utterly unintelligible in this strained tenor part, probably through no fault of his own.

Makes Himself Heard

The fast-rising young Justino Diaz, in the brief one-scene role of the drunken First Apprentice, did the best singing of the evening, singing richly, clearly and warmly. Donald Gramm's nutty Doctor was also clearly and admirably delivered.



Search by season: 1964-65

Search by title: Wozzeck,



Met careers