Werther

When Goethe sent his novel The Suffering of the Young Werther to the streets in the latter half of the 18th century, an entire generation came to the attention of a male ideal that could accommodate both vulnerability, powerlessness and the sorrows of love. Men were no longer merely soldiers, rulers, and foragers. They had the right to swarm, write poems, show weakness and, yes, be unhappily in love.

It is precisely the vulnerability and the unrequited infatuation that are put to music in the finest way by the French composer Jules Massenet in the opera based on Goethe's immortal novel. Massenet, with his sensitive melodies, manages to give young Werther's infatuation with the already deposed Charlotte a tinge of possible happiness. The music acts as a light in the darkness and a possible rescue plank as the infatuated Werther slowly but surely moves towards the abyss and the realisation that even the greatest love is not always reciprocated.

“The most beautiful, honest and sorrowful thing that one has been able to experience on this stage in recent years,” the press wrote when the setup premiered at the Zurich Opera. Werther is staged by one of the highly sought-after European opera directors of the time, Tatjana Gürbaca. She has created a psychologically intense performance full of visual beauty, in which the narrow space becomes a symbol of both Werther's mental state and the terms of love.

The Royal Theatre's French chief conductor Marie Jacquot will head the Royal Chapel, interpreting Massenet's moving music for the first time. The tenor Jacob Skov Andersen can add another of the great parties in opera history to his repertoire with the title role of Werther, and his beloved Charlotte sung by the Royal Opera's mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Jansson.

Werther is sung in French with Danish and English subtitles.

In collaboration with Opernhaus Zürich

Photo: Opéra national du Rhin © KLARA BECK/ONR

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