Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House – review

DESPITE my reservations about modern opera, and despite my being unsure whether I actually enjoyed it or not, I cannot deny that this is a remarkable production of a striking opera. 

The composer Alban Berg was, along with Schoenberg and Webern, one of the pioneers of modern atonal music. When Wozzeck received its premiere in Berlin in 1925, it made a huge impact, mixing popular acclaim for making groundbreaking strides in both plot and music, with critical savaging for what was seen as outrageous mould-breaking in the music. Compared with many of today's compositions, it is not too difficult to listen to, but 90 years ago it was indeed shocking. 

The plot is shocking too, even by today's standards. Wozzeck, a none-too-bright soldier, lives with a prostitute called Marie, who has borne him an illegitimate child. 

To cope with the financial demands of bringing the boy up, she continues to ply her trade, while he earns a little extra money by acting as a subject in the trials of new treatments by a very dodgy doctor. 

In a fit of jealousy, after Marie has been entertaining a Drum Major, Wozzeck cuts her throat then drowns while trying to recover the knife after throwing it in a lake, then having second thoughts about hiding it somewhere better. 

It all sounds like a modern, grim newspaper story about the inadequacy of social services, but with Berg's music heightening the already considerable emotions of the tale, it becomes an effective piece of theatre and a powerful experience for the audience.

The production by Keith Warner and set designs by Stefanos Lazaridis emphasise the starkness of the piece. The set combines a vast and soulless area that looks like a psychiatric ward with a dingy corner in which Wozzeck and Marie live with their son and the action spills effortlessly from one part to the other. 

Yet the same starkness seems almost to dehumanise the characters. When the ENO performed the same opera recently, I felt a greater sense of involvement, but perhaps the sense of alienation of Warner's production is just another deliberate aspect of the starkness.

There are, however, some outstanding features too, notably the performances of Simon Keenlyside and Karita Mattila as Wozzeck and Marie, ably supported by John Tomlinson as the crazed doctor and Gerhard Siegel as the army captain. 

The dramatic climax, as the hero drowns at the end, is brilliantly executed, and a real hush came over the audience as they watched Keenlyside, totally submerged in the water, talk for about the last 10 minutes of the opera. 

There must have been a snorkel mouthpiece cleverly hidden at the bottom of the tank, but at the time I could not see how it was done. 

This opera will surely not be to everyone's taste, and I did see one person walk out after about half an hour, but it is well worth seeing if you know what you are letting yourself in for. 

VERDICT: 3/5

Wozzeck runs until November 15. See roh.org.uk or call 020 7304 4000 for details.