Airs Sunday, May 3 at 12 p.m.

Season 14 of Great Performances at the Met continues Sunday, May 3 at 12 p.m. on Southern Oreogn PBS with Berg’s tragic apocalyptic tale, Wozzeck. Baritone Peter Mattei stars as Wozzeck alongside soprano Elza van den Heever as Marie. Tenor Christopher Ventris as the Drum-Major, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Margret, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as the Doctor, and tenor GerhardSiegel as the Captain complete the cast. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts.

South African artist William Kentridge’s production is set in an apocalyptic pre-World War I environment. As the soldier Wozzeck shaves the Captain, the Captain tells him he is a good man but lacks morality because he has an illegitimate child. Wozzeck replies that virtue is a luxury not meant for the poor. Later, while cutting firewood in the fields, Wozzeck is frightened by visions. He hears noises and imagines the sinking sun as a fire setting the earth aflame. Marie, the mother of Wozzeck’s child, and her neighbor, Margret, admire a military band passing outside their window. When Wozzeck arrives at Marie’s and tells her about his visions, she tries to comfort him, but he runs off towards the barracks without checking on his son. Wozzeck then visits the Doctor and pays to participate in his pseudo-scientific research. When Wozzeck confesses his visions, the Doctor dismisses them as his imagination.

The Drum-Major makes advances at Marie. At first she rejects him, but later gives in and accepts a pair of earrings from him. When Wozzeck arrives, Marie tries to hide the earrings and claims that she found them in the street. Wozzeck gives Marie money and leaves Marie overwhelmed with remorse. As he passes the Captain and the Doctor in the street, they taunt him with allusions to Marie’s infidelity. Shocked, Wozzeck asks them not to make fun of the one thing in the world that is his. He confronts Marie about her involvement with the Drum-Major and she denies it. At the barracks, Wozzeck finds the Drum-Major boasting about his conquest and fights him. In the final act, Marie and Wozzeck walk together near a pond and reminisce before Wozzeck stabs Marie.Bass-baritone and Porgy and Bess star Eric Owens hosts.