Simple Attractions Berg's 'Wozzeck' - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON '... quite convincing enough ...'

The great joy of this opera, when the treatment meted out to most of its characters becomes unendurable, is to take refuge in the simple attractions of its musical structures. Act 1 offers a Suite, Military March and Passacaglia. In Act 2 there is the comfort of a Fantasia and Fugue plus Scherzo with two trios. The final act is a series of Inventions: during that on one note Marie is murdered by Wozzeck; in the course of Berg's meditations on a six-note chord Wozzeck wades further and further into a pool to cleanse himself of Marie's blood (shades of dear Lady Macbeth) until at last he drowns. Thus in his cunning Berg anchors his music to time-honoured devices well proved in every composer's workshop.

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