Wozzeck: Wretches Like Us

The music

Berg Wozzeck (semi-staged) (90’) Listen

The performers

• Edward Gardner conductor*
• Stéphane Degout Wozzeck
• Annette Dasch Marie
• Peter Hoare Captain
• Brindley Sherratt Doctor
• Christopher Ventris Drum Major
• Eirik Grøtvedt Andres
• Adrian Thompson The Fool
• Kitty Whately Margret
• London Voices

Alban Berg’s devastating opera thrums with drama: feel its power at this collaboration between the London Philharmonic Orchestra and film-maker Ilya Shagalov.

‘Wretches like us – we’ll always be cursed, in this world and the next.’

Poor Wozzeck is at the bottom of the heap – an underdog made for kicking, and an easy target for the powerful, the cynical and the cruel. Alban Berg’s devastating opera tells the story of a man pushed to breaking point, in some of the most searching – and searing – music of the 20th century.

Film-maker and video artist Ilya Shagalov reads Berg’s opera through the lens of the fragile migrant body – a body that works, cares, obeys and breaks.

Wozzeck is a story about a man crushed by forces larger than himself. In the UK today, this figure is instantly recognisable: the invisible worker whose life is shaped by the pressure to survive.

Wozzeck is one of those operas that simply has to be experienced live, and this one-off concert staging, with Edward Gardner conducting a cast of world-class dramatic singers, should leave you reeling.

Ilya Shagalov is an acclaimed video designer and multimedia artist known for his innovative approach to visual storytelling. With a career spanning over a decade, Shagalov has collaborated with leading directors, musicians and performance companies across the globe. His work seamlessly blends technology and human emotion, often exploring themes of memory, identity and resilience.

Commissioned by the Southbank Centre and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Concert supported by a syndicate of donors.

*Edward Gardner’s position in the LPO is generously supported by Aud Jebsen.