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First-Year Seminar Presents

First-Year Seminar Plenary Session 2

Monday, March 30, 2015
Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater

From Play to Opera: Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck


Presented by Christopher Gibbs, Bard College

Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck is hardly easy listening, either at its 1925 premiere in Berlin or today. Yet from the very beginning not only did composers, performers, and critics embrace the work, but so too did a much broader public. Various factors contribute to its enduring success and potent influence. One is the compelling story and brilliant libretto. Georg Büchner’s unfinished play Woyzeck, which Berg adapted, dates from 1837, the year the playwright died at age 23. From Büchner’s scattered fragments, Berg crafted a tightly organized work of musical theater. This lecture will consider the process of transformation from words to music and include screenings of selected scenes of both the play and opera.

  

For more information, call 845-758-7490, or e-mail [email protected].

Location: Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater

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