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It is difficult to discuss the genius of Berg's opera, Wozzeck, without the use of theoretical nomenclature and a technical description of the manuscript itself. The libretto of the opera is based on Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck and centers around the sad, psychologically tortured life of a simple soldier named Wozzeck. In Act I, Wozzeck's daily toils are revealed in five scenes, called "character-pieces". Each scene delineates a character from Wozzeck's life who holds some degree of control over the protagonist: the merciless critic Hauptmann, the carefree and ineffective friend Andres, an unrelentingly experimental Doctor, his adulterous wife Marie, and the bully Tambour-Major who has an affair with Marie. Act II, a symphony in five movements, details the deterioration of Wozzeck's sanity as his wife's infidelity becomes apparent and paves the way for the inevitable conclusion. Act III is composed as five musical inventions and depicts Wozzeck's murder of his wife and his subsequent drowning in a fountain as he tries to rinse her blood from his hands. The opera closes on the eerily innocent song and dance of Wozzeck's child, who is oblivious to the fate of his parents yet destined to follow in his father's footsteps.
Never before Wozzeck had an opera been organized as an incredibly complicated and abstruse collage of musical forms and styles. Ironically, Berg was intent on ensuring that the internal framework of dance suites, symphonic movements, fugues, and variations did not prevent the listener from focusing on the characters' suffering and the message of the play, and many critics feel he was successful.
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