Berg-Fest Part 2: The Prisoners

After a musically excellent but dramatically frustrating performance of Lulu, the Staatsoper’s Berg-Fest continued with a performance of Wozzeck which more than made up for the shortcomings of the previous evening. Although both productions were conceived by director Andrea Breth – and both displayed a similar preoccupation with the fundamental barbarity of human existence – her Wozzeck managed to delineate the dramatic essence of Büchner’s proto-modern tragedy, while leaving plenty of room for a beautifully rendered performance of Berg’s magnificent score. The central proposition of Ms Breth’s production – which first appeared at the Staatsoper in 2011 and was brought back for a further run last season – is that life is a series of prisons from which death is the only real escape. The concept, if not especially original, is certainly…