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Berg's Wozzeck
Live from the New York Metropolitan Opera.

Here we go: jealousy, humiliation, murder and suicide. It sounds as if it could be any night at the opera. But Alban Berg's Wozzeck is one of the 20th century's greatest dramatic works, the story of a man at the bottom of the heap who goes to pieces under unrelenting pressure.

It's an opera of extraordinary power which combines traditional musical forms with a plot of crushing despair, leaving no hint of hope or redemption.

Berg's masterpiece calls for great singer-actors on stage and a virtuoso orchestra and conductor in the pit. Things are set fair with baritone Alan Held in the title role, mezzo Waltraud Meier as his common law wife, and an equally impressive supporting cast including Australian tenor-of-the-moment Stuart Skelton. James Levine conducts: over the past four decades, he has been the driving force behind the Met Orchestra's rise to the premiere league of US ensembles.

Presented by Margaret Juntwait with guest commentator Ira Siff.

Wozzeck ..... Alan Held (Baritone)
Marie ..... Waltraud Meier (Mezzo-soprano)
Drum Major ..... Stuart Skelton (Tenor)
Captain ..... Gerhard Siegel (Tenor)
Doctor ..... Walter Fink (Bass)
Andres ..... Russell Thomas (tenor)
Margret ..... Wendy White (contralto)
First Apprentice ..... Richard Bernstein (bass)
Second Apprentice ..... Mark Schowalter (baritone)
Madman ..... Philippe Castagner (tenor)
A Soldier ..... Daniel Clark Smith (tenor)

New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
Conductor ..... James Levine.