Werther

Massenet started composing Werther in 1885, completing it in 1887. He submitted it to Léon Carvalho, the director of the Paris Opéra-Comique, that year, but Carvalho declined to accept it on the grounds that the scenario was too serious.[1] With the disruption of the fire at the Opéra-Comique and Massenet's work on other operatic projects (especially Esclarmonde), it was put to one side, until the Vienna Opera, pleased with the success of Manon, asked the composer for a new work. Werther received its premiere on 16 February 1892 (in a German version translated by Max Kalbeck) at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna.[1]

The French-language premiere followed in Geneva on 27 December 1892.[2] The first performance in France was given by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on 16 January 1893, with Marie Delna as Charlotte and Guillaume Ibos in the title role, conducted by Jules Danbé, but was not immediately successful.[1]

Werther entered the repertoire at the Opéra-Comique in 1903 in a production supervised by Albert Carré,[1] and over the next half-century the opera was performed over 1,100 times there, Léon Beyle becoming a distinguished interpreter of Werther.[3]

The United States premiere with the Metropolitan Opera took place in Chicago on 29 March 1894 and then in the company's main house in New York City three weeks later.[4] The UK premiere was a one-off performance at Covent Garden, London, on 11 June 1894[2] with Emma Eames as Charlotte, Sigrid Arnoldson as Sophie, and Jean de Reszke in the title role.

Werther is still regularly performed around the world and has been recorded many times. Although the role of Werther was written for a tenor, Massenet adjusted it for a baritone, when Mattia Battistini sang it in Saint Petersburg in 1902. It is very occasionally performed in this version, in which the changes affect only the vocal line for the title character. There are no other changes to the words, to the lines for other characters, or to the orchestration.

2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (doubling English horns), 2 clarinets in B-flat and A, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 2 cornets in B-flat and A, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (1) (bass drum, triangle), harp, strings.

Time: Within the period July to December, in an undefined year in the 1780s.

Place: Wetzlar in Germany.

Claire Croiza as Charlotte in 1907

Scene from a 2019 Florida Grand Opera production

A well-regarded recording of the complete opera was made in January 1931 by French Columbia with a French cast and the orchestra and chorus of the Opéra-Comique under the direction of Élie Cohen. Henry Fogel of Fanfare magazine, writing in 1992, counted 14 complete recordings and considered it the finest of the lot.[6] His colleague, James Camner, reviewing the Opera d'Oro reissue in 2003, called it "one of the treasures of recorded opera. ... Unfortunately, the transfer is over filtered. The high frequencies are lost, giving the performance an unwarranted flatness. Happily, Naxos offers the same recording expertly transferred by Ward Marston, and acquiring it is a must."[7] Alan Blyth, while giving a very positive review of the reissue of the recording with Albert Lance as Werther and Rita Gorr as Charlotte in 2004, nevertheless pointed out that "neither quite has the ideal subtlety of the best Massenet singers, such as Vallin and Thill on the classic, pre-war set, now on Naxos".[8]

In addition, many of the greatest French and Italian singers of the past century or more have recorded individual arias from Massenet's masterwork.

Notes

• Upton, George; Borowski, Felix (1928). The Standard Opera Guide. Blue Ribbon Books, New York. pp. 187–8.
• Kobbé, Gustav (1976). The Complete Opera Book. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 864–9.
• Huebner, Steven (2006). French Opera at the Fin de Siècle: Werther. Oxford University Press, US. pp. 113–34. ISBN 978-0-19-518954-4.

• Werther: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Werther: Full orchestral score, indiana.edu