Werther: synopsis, roles, arias and diction notes

Werther is a number opera with closed vocal forms, loosely knit, and it has no ballet or chorus except for the six children of the Bailli⁵. Massenet, the leading composer of French opera in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was a consummate craftsman and man of the theatre⁵. It is one of the guides in the operas section.

At a glance

Jules Massenet was a French composer who lived from 1842 to 1912³. The libretto is French, by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann¹. Milliet was a French playwright and librettist, born on 14 February 1848 in Rio de Janeiro and died on 21 November 1924⁶. The opera is loosely based on Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, which itself was based on Goethe’s own early life¹. The action takes place between July and December 1772, in Wetzlar in Germany¹.

Massenet did more than any other composer to establish the Opéra-Comique as a crucible of great artistic creation⁴. He started composing Werther in 1885 and completed it in 1887¹.

Who’s who

Massenet’s cast list suggests that Sophie is 15, Charlotte 20 and Werther 23⁷. Charlotte is a part taken by both mezzos and sopranos⁷. She begins as a vision of maternal security⁷. Albert’s harmonies are solid but placid, and his vocal line moves in small, deliberate steps⁷.

Werther was written for tenor, and Massenet adjusted it for a baritone when Mattia Battistini sang it in Saint Petersburg in 1902¹. In the Met production, David Bižić made his Met debut as Albert and Jonathan Summers sang Le Bailli⁸.

Synopsis

Act 1

In July the Bailli is teaching his six youngest children a Christmas carol, “Noël! Jésus vient de naître,” while the drinking companions arrive¹. Werther watches as Charlotte prepares her young siblings’ supper, just as her mother had before she died¹. A shared love of poetry draws Werther and Charlotte together at once⁴. After an orchestral interlude, Werther and Charlotte return very late, and he is already enamoured of her¹.

Albert returns unexpectedly after a six-month trip¹. He is unsure of Charlotte’s intentions and disappointed not to find her at home, but is reassured and consoled by Charlotte’s younger sister Sophie¹. Charlotte recalls how she promised her dying mother she would marry Albert¹.

Act 2

It is three months later, and Charlotte and Albert are now married¹. They walk happily to church to celebrate the minister’s 50th wedding anniversary, followed by the disconsolate Werther¹. Charlotte begs Werther to leave her, though she indicates that she would be willing to receive him again on Christmas Day¹. Werther contemplates suicide with “Lorsque l’enfant revient d’un voyage”¹. He encounters Sophie, but the tearful girl does not understand his distressing behavior¹. Albert now realizes that Werther loves Charlotte¹.

Sent away because he refuses to accept the fact of her marriage, Werther becomes increasingly unstable⁷.

Act 3

Charlotte is at home alone on Christmas Eve, rereading the letters she has received from Werther¹. Werther reads some poetry of Ossian, “Pourquoi me réveiller?”¹. They embrace for a moment, but she quickly bids him farewell¹. He leaves with thoughts of suicide¹.

Werther sends a messenger to Albert, requesting to borrow his pistols, explaining he is going on an extended trip¹. After the servant has taken them, Charlotte has a terrible premonition and hurries to find Werther¹. The orchestral intermezzo “La nuit de Noël” leads without a break into the final act¹.

Act 4

At Werther’s apartment, Charlotte has arrived too late to stop him from shooting himself, and he is dying¹. She consoles him by declaring her love, and he asks for forgiveness¹. After he dies, Charlotte faints, and outside children are heard singing the Christmas carol¹.

The carol frames the opera. The Bailli rehearses it with his children in Act 1, and the children sing it outside as Werther dies in Act 4¹.

The famous arias

Standing and reception

Werther has attractive music of great emotional intensity and an excellent libretto⁵. Despite a warm welcome at its Viennese premiere, the work went on to only 56 performances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris between 1893 and 1902⁵. Early audiences gave a generally tepid response, due partly to a distaste for the introspective and dark subject⁵.

Werther entered the Opéra-Comique repertoire in 1903 in a production supervised by Albert Carré¹. In the half-century that followed, the opera was performed over 1,100 times there¹. Manon and Werther are Massenet’s two most frequently staged operas³. Massenet set great store by this opera and its success⁵.

Background, premiere and reception

Massenet wrote and completed Werther in 1887, and it received no performance until it premiered². He completed the vocal score on 14 March 1887, and orchestration began the following day and continued until 2 July⁷. The Opéra-Comique theatre burned down in May 1887⁷. Léon Carvalho, director of the Opéra-Comique, declined the work on the grounds that the scenario was too serious¹. He preferred to present his bourgeois audience with love stories that ended in happiness⁴.

It premiered at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna on 16 February 1892, in a German version translated by Max Kalbeck². The French-language premiere followed in Geneva on 27 December 1892¹. The first performance in France was at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 16 January 1893, with Marie Delna as Charlotte and Guillaume Ibos in the title role, conducted by Jules Danbé^1,2. The Opéra-Comique kept Werther in its repertoire from 1893⁷. The United States premiere with the Metropolitan Opera took place in Chicago on 29 March 1894¹. The UK premiere was a one-off performance at Covent Garden in London on 11 June 1894, with Emma Eames as Charlotte and Jean de Reszke in the title role¹.

A well-regarded recording of the complete opera was made in January 1931 by French Columbia with a French cast¹. Pappano made a second recording of Werther in 2011, live from Covent Garden⁷. Jonas Kaufmann sang the role with the Paris Opera in 2010 and the Vienna State Opera in 2011⁸. In the Met’s new production he starred as the tortured poet, with Sophie Koch making her Met debut as Charlotte⁸. Richard Eyre directed that staging and Alain Altinoglu conducted⁸. Rob Howell designed its sets and costumes⁸.

Language and diction notes

The libretto is French, so the rules in French diction for singers apply from the first bar. The setting is in Germany, but the Vienna premiere was sung in German translation, and the original text is French^1,2. For vowel work, use IPA for singers, and for translating line by line see how to read a libretto. For the other Massenet title in the same cluster, try Manon; the Classical Music recordings guide and the PBS Met feature cover performances^7,8.