On November 3, 1942, Alban Berg's Wozzeck, banned in Germany as degenerate art, had its Italian premiere at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (then Teatro Reale). Rome's opera house has gracefully chosen to dedicate their recent season premiere -- another Wozzeck, this time staged by Giancarlo Del Monaco and conducted by maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti -- to the memory of the 1,024 Roman Jewish citizen who in October 1943 were kidnapped by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. Ticket prices for the performance had been heavily marked down to a very affordable 20-30 euros.
Corriere della Sera hailed the production's minimalist staging as a "genius" premise, Jean-Philippe Lafont's "impressive" "voice" and "charisma", Gelmetti's "natural" talent for conducting music written by very different composers; big props to Janice Baird's "musicalissima Marie", "most musical Marie".
(production photos courtesy of www.janicebaird.com)