Wozzeck
Date & Time
Location Main Campus | Law Building
Film Information
| Theater | Brown Auditorium Theater |
| Directed by | William Kentridge with Luc de Wit/Directed for live cinema by Gary Halvorson |
| Year | 2020 |
| Length | 111 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | German with English subtitles © 2020 The Metropolitan Opera |
Email Your Questions [email protected]
Wozzeck
Date & Time
Location Main Campus | Law Building
Film Information
| Theater | Brown Auditorium Theater |
| Directed by | William Kentridge with Luc de Wit/Directed for live cinema by Gary Halvorson |
| Year | 2020 |
| Length | 111 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | German with English subtitles © 2020 The Metropolitan Opera |
This film screening, presented to complement the exhibition William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows, is included with Museum admission. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
In 1925 Alban Berg based his first opera, Wozzeck, on the 1837 Georg Büchner play about a man’s life being destroyed by the casual sadism of military bureaucracy. This William Kentridge collaboration with New York’s Metropolitan Opera sets the tragedy during World War I, focusing on a soldier (Peter Mattei) whose madness and paranoia ultimately lead to murder.
“It is a radical opera. . . . All the hallucinations that Büchner writes for Wozzeck are things that would never be seen in the 1830s, but were literally there in the 1910s.” —William Kentridge
Email Your Questions [email protected]
The MFAH film department is supported by Tenaris; The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation; the Vaughn Foundation; The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea; Nina and Michael Zilkha; Franci Neely; Carrin Patman and Jim Derrick; Ms. Laurence Unger; L'Alliance Française de Houston; and ILEX Foundation.
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation; and the Texas Commission on the Arts. Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Ballard; Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Tate; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Virginia and Ira Jackson; the Favrot Fund; CFP Foundation; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of John Wynne; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.
The exhibition “William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows” is organized by The Broad, Los Angeles.
In Houston, major support is provided by:
Bobbie Nau
Additional generous support is provided by:
John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation
Bettie Cartwright
JBD Foundation
Beverly and Howard Robinson
Leslie and Russ Robinson