Massenet’s Werther: a information to his operatic masterpiece and its greatest recordings

What’s the storyline behind Werther?

Set within the small German city of Wetzlar – the historic location for Goethe’s partly autobiographical story – round 1780, the opera has at its dramatic centre the love between the hyper-sensitive younger poet Werther and Charlotte, a younger lady whose father is a pillar of native society. Following a promise made to her dying mom, Charlotte unenthusiastically marries the respectable however uninteresting Albert – whom she doesn’t love.

Refusing to simply accept that he has misplaced her, Werther turns into more and more unstable and ultimately commits suicide, dying in her arms within the opera’s last scene. Paradoxically, this bleak story is framed by references to the celebration of Christmas: within the opening scene, set in July, Charlotte’s father the Bailli (or bailiff) is already rehearsing his youthful youngsters in a carol they’ll sing on Christmas Eve. Despatched away by Charlotte as a result of he refuses to simply accept the very fact of her marriage, Werther is instructed that he might come again at, sure, Christmas time. Which, after all, he does. Following an more and more determined confrontation between the 2, nevertheless, Werther borrows Albert’s pistols, leaves for his lodgings and shoots himself. Involved for his welfare, Charlotte hurries after him solely to seek out him dying: he succumbs simply as the kids’s voices are heard offstage, as soon as extra singing their carol.

The 2 central characters and their repressed relationship are on the coronary heart of the piece. Werther is a person who represents the burgeoning Romanticism espoused by Goethe himself, which subsequently resonated tumultuously throughout Europe. There’s a gentler aspect to Werther’s nature, although, as offered within the rating, particularly in his opening pantheistic hymn, or within the rapt, luminous and understated ‘Clair de lune’ love scene on the shut of the primary act. Elsewhere, the title character’s excessive volatility drew from Massenet one thing very darkish and even frenetic. Round him the harmonies shift and grind, the orchestra bursts forth with unruly feelings, and his vocal line swoops and sweeps over a variety. That is in stark distinction to the musical characterisation of Albert, whose harmonies are strong however placid, and whose vocal line strikes in small, deliberate steps. Caught in between the 2, Charlotte begins as a imaginative and prescient of maternal safety, her personal music extra delicately scored and extra subtly harmonised than Albert’s – however equally shifting inside circumscribed limits. But Werther units one thing off in her. It’s nearly as if she is contaminated by his personal lack of restraint, in order that of their nice third-act confrontation she is dragged, melodically and harmonically, over into his world of heightened subjective ardour.

We named Werther one of many greatest Christmas operas of all time

The very best recordings of Werther

Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Roberto Alagna (Werther), Angela Gheorghiu (Charlotte) et al; London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano

Warner Classics 735 9542

Pappano is an professional operatic conductor with a variety of musical sympathies. In his first recording of Werther – made initially for EMI in 1998 however now out there on Warner Classics – his infallible mixture of command and suppleness gives the inspiration of a potent interpretation, with some extraordinary but solely acceptable surges of ardour. Pappano’s ‘pit’ orchestra right here is the LSO, whose colouristic palette is as huge as one might want, with the outcome that Massenet’s resourceful orchestral writing comes over in addition to on any set. No different operatic composer can beat his talent in precisely depicting the precise atmosphere of particular person scenes by way of tonal portray: every is allotted its personal distinctive set of colors and all are vividly represented right here.

The well-known ‘Clair de lune’, as an illustration, when Werther and Charlotte return residence from a ball having fallen in love with each other, merely gleams with moonlit sensuousness. For his or her half, the engineers seize the element of the LSO’s distinguished enjoying in comprehensively glorious sound. Tenor Alagna’s French beginning and upbringing allow him to ship an idiomatic studying of the title-role – ardent but delicate and above all marked by a way of ardour that’s initially restrained however which ultimately turns into ungovernable. He’s nicely matched by Angela Gheorghiu, who retains a necessary inward disappointment within the ‘Clair de lune’ whereas elsewhere permitting Charlotte’s true emotions to rise nearer to the floor sooner than most of the function’s exponents do. In an element taken by each mezzos and sopranos, her decrease vary is convincingly exploited, whereas all through her profoundly musical and thought of account gazes steadily into the character’s inside depths. Whereas providing precision, Patricia Petibon as Sophie sounds simply as gentle and fluttery because the teenage youngster she is supposed to painting (Massenet’s solid record means that Sophie is 15, Charlotte 20 and Werther 23). Thomas Hampson attracts a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of over-earnest Albert, Jean-Philippe Courtis’s Le Bailli retains his ft on the bottom, and the smaller roles are all expertly taken by French singers. Pappano, by the way, made a second recording in 2011, dwell from Covent Backyard, with Rolando Villazón within the title function and Sophie Koch as Charlotte (on DG). It’s additionally commendable, although the Mexican tenor cannot fairly match Alagna within the title-role.