Art of war: Austrian composer Alban Berg drew inspiration for his apocalyptic opera Wozzeck (Met Live in HD broadcast), when he attended a production of the drama Woyzeck, a German play left incomplete by Georg Büchner at his death. Berg constructed his libretto for the production while on leave from his regiment in World War I, and became obsessed with completing the three-act work as a way of processing his experience. In a letter home, he wrote: “There is a little bit of me in his character, since I have been spending these war years just as dependent on people I hate, have been in chains, sick, captive, resigned, in fact, humiliated.”
Related stories
Ecological wonder
“To tell you about the beauty, I must also speak of threat,” writes Greg Wrenn in Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis. A complex exploration into personal and ecological trauma that also investigates alternative healing and the cultivation of wonder, this book is as much a prompt for personal reflection as it is a […]
Mountain mindful
A local by way of Waynesboro, Scott Miller pays tribute to his roots with his latest album, Ladies Auxiliary. The founder of energetic alt-country rock band The V-Roys slows to singer-songwriter mode on the record, and employs a band of women in songs that capture the music and characters of his native Appalachia. $25, 7:30. […]
Tiptoe thrills
Since 1974, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has been preening and poking fun at an uptight world with “razor-sharp wit and breathtaking pointe work.” The Trocks, as the all-male comic ballet company is known, celebrate their 50th anniversary with a worldwide tour that confirms the troupe’s long-running global sensation status. $24.75-44.75, 7:30. The Paramount […]
