Hunka to Sing Wozzeck

By Olena Wawryshyn

The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, featuring Ukrainian-British bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka in the title role, opens on March 31 in Toronto.

An extreme fusion of music and theatre, the opera, based on the play Woyzeck by Georg Bchner, tells the tale of a soldier haunted by his experiences on the battlefield who is unable to face the harsh realities of life.

Hunka returns to play the doomed soldier after critical acclaim for his previous portrayals of Macbeth, Hunding and Falstaff in past COC productions.

The COC’s General  Director Richard Bradshaw conducts Wozzeck, and Lofti Mansouri directs the production.

According to Toronto musicologist Wasyl Sydorenko: “In the 1920s, Wozzeck and other modern operas like Kurt Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper, Ernst Krenek’s Johnny spielt auf, Sergei Prokofiev’s Love of Three Oranges, were all performed in Ukraine. Ukraine’s capital at that time, Kharkiv,  was the centre of theatrical innovation with Les Kurbas staging futuristic productions of Ukrainian dramas, which included robots and even Martians. Composer Borys Liatoshynsky wrote his ultramodern opera Zolotyi obruch in 1929. Ukrainian culture in the 1920’s was on the go!”

“The Canadian Opera Company first performed Wozzeck in 1977, 50 years after the Ukrainian premiere,” says Sydorenko.

“Berg’s other opera Lulu was produced by the COC in 1980 and caused quite a scandal within the Ukrainian community. Word got around that the granddaughter of the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, Kristen “Tunia” Gregory, would be singing in the opera. It was only a minor role for her, but many Ukrainians who had never attended opera went. Those who survived the dissonances of the first act were rewarded with “Tunia” playing the role of a lesbian lover in Act II,” he adds.

Changes in social sensibilities and the fact that Wozzeck’s subject matter is less risqu than Lulu means that there will be no such negative uproar over the COC’s current production.

Yet, Wozzeck, which first premiered in 1925 in Berlin, today is still considered to be a work that pushes opera to its boundaries.  It uses non-traditional musical language and interweaves many recognizable sounds, including the music of a marching band, folk and tavern songs, and a child’s lullaby, into emotional and expressionistic music.

 “It is the greatest expressionist opera ever written,” says Sydorenko.  “It changed my life when I was 17.  It will astound music-lovers and critics alike,” he adds.

Wozzeck takes place on March 31, April 2, 5, 8, 11, 13 at the Hummmingbird Centre for Performing arts in Toronto.