Alban Berg’s opera based on Georg Büchner’s unfinished play Woyzeck is Wozzeck.
Berg composed Wozzeck between 1914 and 1922, adapting the fragmented drama about Franz Woyzeck, a poor soldier subjected to exploitation and humiliating medical experiments. Berg changed the spelling of the title to Wozzeck after working from an edition that used that form, and the altered title became standard for the opera.
The work premiered at the Berlin State Opera on 14 December 1925, conducted by Erich Kleiber. Its tightly organized three-act structure uses musical forms such as suite, passacaglia, fugue, and invention, giving the opera a rigorous framework despite its intensely expressionist sound.
Wozzeck is often discussed alongside Berg’s later opera Lulu. Both portray psychologically pressured central characters, but Lulu is based on Frank Wedekind’s plays, while Wozzeck comes from Büchner’s drama. The opera is widely regarded as a landmark of twentieth-century modernism.