to a splendid collection and a noble achievement; few are the previous opera sets in the series that equal the artistic force, value and sheer rightness of this Wozzeck in English translation. It succeeds, mightily, for several reasons. One, obviously, is the direct communicativeness of the English-language text in the ears and mind of an Anglophone listener. Richard Stokes’s translation of Berg’s own Büchner adaptation may not be entirely unified in tone and style—rawly colloquial phrases cohabit with oddly archaic ones—but since the singers put across their words with such searing vividness (Marie’s cry of ‘I’m frightened!’ and Wozzeck’s of ‘I’m reeling!’ left behind unsettling echoes for days afterwards), it must be a workable vehicle for singing-acting in the first place. But this is more than just a serviceable Wozzeck-in-English: it’s a telling, indeed profoundly stirring enactment of the work tout court.'