Opera Scotland

Wozzeck 1966Stuttgart State Opera

Read more about the opera Wozzeck

What was then, and is still, unique about this 1966 Festival visit was the fact that not only did the Stuttgart company bring stagings of The Magic Flute and Lohengrin, but they brought both Berg's other operas, Wozzeck, under the inspiring baton of Carlos Kleiber, and the incomplete Lulu, receiving its Scottish premiere.

In the event only a single performance of Wozzeck was given. A week later, the audience assembled for the repeat, the BBC were ready to give a live relay, and it was announced that the performance was cancelled due to sudden illness on the part of the conductor. Given the extent of his later fame, it is regrettable that Carlos Kleiber never conducted opera in Scotland again. As it happens, the staging of Wozzeck was seen to be far less important than the Lulu that followed on later in the Festival. The production was considered to be fairly conventional, and the experiment of casting the title role with a tenor did not really work either.