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| Alan Held as Wozzeck; (c) Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera |
I'd been looking forward to the Met's
Wozzeck for
some time, but I didn't expect to love it. It was, of course, abysmally bleak. It was also brutally honest, surprisingly beautiful, and almost unbearably poignant: in short, one of the finest nights I've had at the opera this year, and perhaps ever. For a synopsis, go
here. The tragedy was inevitable, and it had me on the edge of my seat. The singing and acting of all the principals was of an exceptionally high level, and James Levine led the orchestra in a reading of the score which I found coherent, detail-rich, and gorgeous. It was not aggressive; I overheard some muttering that it was, in fact,
too beautiful a rendering. Well, not for me; I thought the subtleties were eloquent of despair.