Werther

Werther is a young idealistic artist, sensitive and fervent in spirit. From the moment he arrives in Wetzlar, where he hopes to settle, he is dazzled by a vision of familial bliss, at the heart of which shines Charlotte. A shared love of poetry draws them together at once. Yet Charlotte has made a solemn vow to her dying mother to marry Albert...

Massenet did more than any other composer to establish the Opéra-Comique as a crucible of great artistic creation. And yet, his sublime adaptation of Goethe’s first novel was initially rejected by the director of the time, who preferred to present his bourgeois audience with love stories that ended in happiness. It was only after Werther’s resounding triumph in Vienna that the work was finally embraced by our institution where it has since become one of the most frequently performed operas in the repertoire.

Following his mesmerising Lakmé in 2022, Raphaël Pichon continues his exploration of 19th-century lyric drama. Meanwhile, Ted Huffman unveils the incomparable theatrical depth of Massenet’s music in a production that remains profoundly attuned to human emotions where Pene Pati, Marianne Crebassa, and Julie Roset are certain to move us to the core.

Lyrical drama in four acts and five scenes, based on a libretto by Édouard Blau
Paul Milliet, and Georges Hartmann, inspired by Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Created in Vienna on 16th February 1892 from a German translation by Max Kalbeck and first performed at the Opéra-Comique on 16th January 1893.