All remaining live performances in the 2019–20 season at The Met have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is a recording from 15 March 2014.
A scene from Werther at The Met Photo: Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera
Sunday 26 April 2020 at 6pm on RNZ Concert
MASSENET: Werther
Cast:
Lisette Oropesa (Sophie), Sophie Koch (Charlotte), Jonas Kaufmann (Werther), David Bizic (Albert), Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra conducted by Alain Altinoglu
Recorded at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City
Werther is an opera in four acts, based on Goethe's novel 'The Sorrows of Young Werther'
A sensation when it appeared in 1774 (and partly inspired by the author’s own experiences), it tells the story of a melancholy poet whose love for a married woman and general disaffection with the world lead to his suicide. The archetype of the artistic, brilliant, and doomed young man rebelling against the establishment has resonated through the ages in literature, theatre, film and music.
The novel and opera are set in a small town near Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 18th century. The Met’s production moves the action to Massenet’s time.
A scene from Werther at The Met Photo: Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera
The conflict between expression and repression that forms the essence of the novel is depicted brilliantly in Massenet’s score. The composer’s gift for elegant melody is immediately apparent, but it’s the deployment and placement of these melodies that raise the opera to its impressive dramatic level. The cascade of sound in the brief orchestral passages, most notably the opening bars of the prelude and the intermezzo between Acts III and IV, are gripping depictions of emotion.
