The utterly romantic drama based on Goethe's epistolary novel Die Leiden des jungen Werthers occupies Massenet for several years before he finally composes an opera from it. The opera premiered in Vienna in 1892 with Belgian tenor Ernest Van Dijck in the title role. Massenet composes a psychological love drama in which the compulsive bourgeois environment literally destroys love.
Weak character direction
Director Fabrice Murgia situates the story simultaneously in nature and in the house of the bailiff, father of Charlotte, who cares for the family and is promised as a wife to Albert on her mother's deathbed. The small house perhaps symbolizes the narrowmindedness of the environment as a setting, but simultaneously mainly limits the emotional impact of the characters. No character manages to truly move or touch the audience, as if they have no room to breathe. Even at vocal high points, such as Va, laisse couler mes larmes or Pourquoi me réveiller, the singers fail to evoke sadness or despair. The video images projected on the back wall providing close-ups of facial expressions contribute little and come across rather as a disruptive over-emphasis of the setting. The extension of the set to a simple natural scene does give a beautiful and playful expression to the role the children play in the piece. The final scene with Werther's suicide takes place at a half-decayed fallen tree trunk, perhaps an image for the transience of what could have been a deep love. Unfortunately, the intensity also has to give way to the artificiality in the relationship between Charlotte and Werther with the singers.
Musically refined orchestra
Arturo Chacon-Cruz has a somewhat harsh and especially unsubtle voice to express the delicate romanticism or the seductive timbre of Werther. Sometimes he did manage to bring passion to his interpretation, especially in the third act where his beautiful aria – the most famous in the opera - Pourquoi me réveiller, of course led to applause. Clémentine Margaine as Charlotte came across equally neutral and little engaged. She sang with clear and fresh voice, but her interpretation conveyed little emotion, and the complexity of her dilemma between duty and love hardly resonated. An understated interpretation that was vocally well-executed. Elena Galitskaya deserves credit for her lively and beautiful interpretation of Sophie. The children's choir was also fantastic.
Giampaolo Bisanti drew the best out of his orchestra. He ensured that we left the opera satisfied. Both the passionate passages and the refined lyrical moments he perfectly translated into the instrumental accompaniment of the voices. More passion and tragedy emanated from the orchestral music than from the singers. The passages with the low strings and woodwinds also supported the performance. Thanks to him we experienced this Werther as a masterpiece by Jules Massenet.