Still-Photo Wozzeck Stuns at Royal Festival Hall
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- Ilya Shagalov's still-photo video art, co-created with Nina Guseva, ran on a big screen behind the London Philharmonic during a one-off performance of Berg's Wozzeck at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Southbank's Multitudes festival, conducted by Edward Gardner.
- Shagalov's film retold Wozzeck's story in thousands of still images set in a contemporary grey city, casting the protagonist as part of an invisible workforce hidden by hi-vis vests; the only moving footage appeared for a single moment after Marie's murder, timed to a terrifying orchestral crescendo on one note.
- The cast featured Peter Hoare as the Captain, Annette Dasch as Marie, Brindley Sherratt as the Doctor, Callum Thorpe as the First Apprentice, and Stéphane Degout in the title role, with the Tiffin Boys Choir performing the children's vocal lines in school uniform.
- The reviewer flagged a structural mismatch: the film omits Wozzeck and Marie's child and instead shows Marie as pregnant, which didn't quite connect with the Tiffin Boys Choir's on-stage entrance in the final minutes.
- Stéphane Degout's Wozzeck was described as the quiet hero of his own undoing, with singing that wrapped the character's desperation in velvet — though the reviewer noted the concert format made it hard to give the singers undivided attention.
- The reviewer concluded by urging festivals worldwide to program Shagalov's video, provided they can field orchestral forces of comparable quality to the London Philharmonic.
Why it matters: The performance was explicitly billed as a one-off, meaning this particular staging will not be reprised in London — yet the reviewer argues the video component is so strong it should travel to other festivals, framing Shagalov's still-photo film as a reusable production asset rather than a single-event gimmick.
