Open this photo in gallery: Michael Kupfer-Radecky, left, as Wozzeck and Anthony Robin Schneider as the Doctor appear in a scene in Wozzeck.Michael Cooper/COC Title: Wozzeck Wozzeck Written by: Alban Berg Alban Berg Conductor: Johannes Debus Johannes Debus Company: Canadian Opera Company Canadian Opera Company Venue: Four Seasons for the Performing Arts Four Seasons for the Performing Arts City: Toronto Toronto Year: To May 17, 2025 You can tell a piece of art is great when, a century after its premiere, it keeps teaching us about contemporary life. And, like them or not, there are life lessons to be found in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, currently onstage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. This production for the Canadian Opera Company – shared with the Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival and Opera Australia – is the work of South African visual artist William Kentridge, and his creation is a brutal, exposed imagining of a bleak tale. We meet Wozzeck, an ordinary man, in the midst of his great efforts to reintegrate himself into normal society after returning from war – specifically the First World War, in Kentridge’s production. He has a daily routine, and he’s taking advice from professionals. But in a truly sad picture of life after shell shock, everyone around Wozzeck utterly fails him. The Captain he serves under spews nonsense and condescension and calls it moral teachings, and the Mengele-esque Doctor is too busy using Wozzeck as a live specimen to offer any decent medical advice. If that isn’t tragic enough, Wozzeck’s wife, Marie, is having a not-so-secret affair with the Drum Major, a more attractive kind of soldier than her husband – that is, one who managed to keep his uniform white and his soul unbothered by combat. It’s all terrible and pointless, and you can’t look away. The sets and costumes – by Sabine Theunissen and Greta Goiris, respectively – drop us into a time of chaos and survival. Every space is deconstructed, unfinished or broken, and wearing gas masks appears to be all the rage. The ramshackle look of the stage is layered with projection design by Catherine Meyburgh that adds art of all kinds: graffiti, propaganda cartoons, childlike sketches of soldiers and pleasant portraits that dissolve into terror. Yet somehow, amid the crowds and mess, Kentridge ensures the action comes through with horrific clarity. In the title role, Michael Kupfer-Radecky is shattering. His voice booms and spins beautifully, but what stands out is his ability to sound stiff, even hollow. Kupfer-Radecky is a touching actor, and he brings to Wozzeck a fascinating combination of blank-slate obedience and deep despair. I felt terribly for him at every turn. As Wozzeck’s wife, Canadian soprano Ambur Braid shows us another version of life after war. Her struggle lies in being poor and socially ostracized, and in having a husband who shows little interest in her or their son. From her first notes in the third scene, Braid shoots a streak of gorgeous soprano through this story, making us realize how badly we needed it. Getting the audience empathize with a woman who cheats on her traumatized husband is asking a lot, but Braid gets us there. Her Marie is someone who’s dying to feel normal and beautiful, and who shows real remorse after she seeks those things in the dashing Drum Major, who is sung strappingly by Canadian tenor Matthew Cairns. Open this photo in gallery: Brooklyn Marshall, left, and Ambur Braid in Wozzeck.Michael Cooper/COC More monstrous are the Captain and the Doctor, two horrendous meddlers with fiendishly difficult music to sing. Michael Schade offers a delightfully smarmy Captain, very Vernon Dursley in his brutal huffing. At times, however, he seemed musically unsure, and his more verbose moments got overpowered by the orchestra. Anthony Robin-Schneider sings the Doctor with unreal beauty, a decidedly creepy bonus for the character. His scene with Wozzeck is a highlight, a truly revolting moment where the Doctor refuses to acknowledge his patient is a human being and Wozzeck is too damaged to notice. Unexpectedly, this Wozzeck is a testament to Canadian operatic talent, even beyond Braid and Cairns. Tenor Michael Colvin and mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabo, both COC favourites, give weird and wonderfully nuanced performances as the Fool and Marie’s neighbour, Margret. As Andres, a fellow soldier, Owen McCausland sounds strong and appropriately stressed; his scene with Kupfer-Radecky is truly heartbreaking, a bit like something out of Heart of Darkness. And from beneath the gas masks, crutches and wooden chairs, the COC Chorus sounds positively chilling under the direction of Sandra Horst. They sing with a coherent sound, a cog in the wheel that is led by music director Johannes Debus and the COC Orchestra. Wozzeck is a tight 90-minute series of scenes, and Debus pulls from them an enormous range of volume and technicolour. Berg is a master of evoking imagination with his orchestration, and the COC Orchestra rises to the challenge, becoming a heaving, faceless character of its own. Wozzeck conjures that empty feeling that comes with too much war and not enough help. It’s a story about the moment where, faced with insurmountable injustices in the world, humankind is torn between grieving the loss and throwing up its hands in furious resignation. And as for those life lessons, this opera has a stark one for us all. War doesn’t always bring out human resilience; sometimes it simply makes us worse. Bleak, no doubt. But this Wozzeck, world-class in its musical and stage offerings, is a must-see. Wozzeck runs to May 16 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto; coc.ca.