WOZZECK
The difference in Wozzeck is the relentless, grinding, downbeat subject. The opera is about evil–without a single redeeming strain of nobility. It’s the petty evil of Mime, without the grandeur of Alberich. None of the characters is tragic; they are only pathetic. I suppose one is meant to empathize with the suffering of the title character, but ignore the composer’s sympathetic dramatic picture of this downtrodden soldier and you have a commonplace tabloid story. “Jealous stalker kills girlfriend, slays self.” The opera does not make much in the way of political statements, but it’s undergirded by a banal socialism of the “virtue is for the middle class” variety. Wozzeck’s boosters are under the mistaken impression that it’s the musical idiom that leaves audiences cold. Nothing could be further from the truth.
