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- Jules Massenet
Werther (1892)
- Heugel (World)
- 1+pic.1+ca.2.2/42+2cnt.3.1/Alto saxophone/timp.prec/hp.org/str.
- SATB
- Soprano, 2 Mezzo Sopranos, 2 Tenors, 2 Baritones, Bass
- 2 hr 10 min
- E. Blau, P. Milliet and G. Hartmann
- English, French, German, Italian
- 22nd March 2025, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
- 25th March 2025, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France
Programme Note
Cast List:
WERTHER, a poet: Tenor
THE BAILIFF: Bass
CHARLOTTE, his daughter: Mezzo-Soprano
SCHMIDT, the Bailiff's friend: Tenor
JOHANN, the Bailiff's friend: Bass
SOPHIE, another daughter: Soprano
ALBERT, Charlotte's fiance: Baritone
The Bailiff's younger children and Citizens of Wetzlar
Forget Goethe! In Werther, an adroitly constructed lyrical drama after the epistolary novel of the master of Weimar, Jules Massenet and the librettists developed the character of Charlotte by rendering her to receptive to Werther's love. A romantic hero tormented by dream and melancholy, Werther and his flights of feverish exaltation contrast sharply with the simple, ingenuous Albert, whom Charlotte married out of duty. The completely invented character of Sophie, Charlotte’s younger sister, is a further innovation: she brings to their musical dialogue in Act III a breath of adolescent freshness tinged with an irrepressible nostalgia.
The composer here is at the height of his powers, with a score whose personal texture is only matched by its magnificence. Dispensing with convention and a pathos that would be pointless, the music bursts into a passionate lyricism that mirrors the couple’s throes of love. The lovers will be briefly united twice: during the duo of abandonment that closes Act III and in the opera’s final, heartrending scene, which concludes with Werther’s suicide. The flame of emotions is here fanned to the highest degree of incandescence.
WERTHER, a poet: Tenor
THE BAILIFF: Bass
CHARLOTTE, his daughter: Mezzo-Soprano
SCHMIDT, the Bailiff's friend: Tenor
JOHANN, the Bailiff's friend: Bass
SOPHIE, another daughter: Soprano
ALBERT, Charlotte's fiance: Baritone
The Bailiff's younger children and Citizens of Wetzlar
Forget Goethe! In Werther, an adroitly constructed lyrical drama after the epistolary novel of the master of Weimar, Jules Massenet and the librettists developed the character of Charlotte by rendering her to receptive to Werther's love. A romantic hero tormented by dream and melancholy, Werther and his flights of feverish exaltation contrast sharply with the simple, ingenuous Albert, whom Charlotte married out of duty. The completely invented character of Sophie, Charlotte’s younger sister, is a further innovation: she brings to their musical dialogue in Act III a breath of adolescent freshness tinged with an irrepressible nostalgia.
The composer here is at the height of his powers, with a score whose personal texture is only matched by its magnificence. Dispensing with convention and a pathos that would be pointless, the music bursts into a passionate lyricism that mirrors the couple’s throes of love. The lovers will be briefly united twice: during the duo of abandonment that closes Act III and in the opera’s final, heartrending scene, which concludes with Werther’s suicide. The flame of emotions is here fanned to the highest degree of incandescence.