Organization

Conductor

Christopher Hopkins

Set designer

John Doyle

Stage director

Costume designer

Gabrielle Dalton

Singer

Tenor

Leonardo Capalbo

Werther

Mezzo-soprano

Ginger Costa-Jackson

Charlotte

Baritone

Dominic Sedgwick

Albert

Bass

Alan Ewing

The bailiff

Soprano

Iria Perestrelo

Sophie

Lighting designer

Tim Mitchell

Robin Horgan

Schmidt

Ross Cumming

Johann

Grange Park Opera

Orchestra

The Gascoigne Orchestra

Child vocalist

Noah Evans

Fritz

Georges Wright

Edi Haka

Hans

Joshua Barlow

Karl

Catherine Mulroy

Gretel

Lola Marie Randall

Clara

French

Surrey

United Kingdom

Grange Park Opera, Surrey

Werther Massenet

Public

English

Approved

Benoît Jacquot’s production of Massenet’s tragic opera explores the conflict between duty and our most passionate desires. Joyce DiDonato (Charlotte) sings 'Werther! Qui m'aurait dit... Ces lettres!' (Letter Scene). Subscribe to our channel and find out more at https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-ev...

Jules Massenet began thinking about making an opera from Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774; The Sorrows of Young Werther) as early as 1880, before he started work on Manon – though in his memoirs he claimed inspiration came in 1886 during a visit to Bayreuth to see Wagner’s Parsifal. He began the score in 1885 and finished it in 1887, but Werther’s premiere did not come until 1892, when the Vienna Hofoper requested another Massenet work after the success of the local premiere of Manon. It has been a permanent part of the international repertory since 1903. Werther and Manon have proved Massenet’s most enduringly popular works.

The excellent libretto, prepared by Edouard Blau and Paul Milliet, distills Goethe’s Romantic masterpiece – their shortened version intensifies and makes more romantic Goethe’s depiction of two passionate people who inadvertently cause each other pain. Its spareness affords Massenet the opportunity to make his music not only delve into the psyches of the central couple but also describe the damage they cause to Sophie and Albert. The score displays Massenet’s gift for melody, with the ‘Clair de lune’, ‘Lied d’Ossian’ and Charlotte’s Act III soliloquy now some of his most loved music. Director Benoît Jacquot’s 2004 production for The Royal Opera, with elegant set designs by Charles Edwards, makes manifest the opera’s theme of keeping up appearances while torrid passions rage beneath.

Werther – 'Air des lettres' aria (Joyce DiDonato, The Royal Opera)

Massenet’s most erotically charged and emotionally visceral work presents the dazzling American mezzo Ginger Costa-Jackson as Charlotte, breaking the heart of shy poet Werther, played by Leonardo Capalbo.

Will Charlotte succumb to the ardent charms of her gentle, charming lover? Or will she stick with Albert, her dashing betrothed?

Rather than discrete arias, Massenet’s scenes flow in and out of the emotional moment: Werther’s lyrical musings on the beauty of nature, Charlotte’s dark night of the soul, lightened by Sophie’s kindly intrusion and Werther’s Ossianic peroration ‘Pourquoi me réveiller’.

Goethe wrote the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther when he was just 24 and it became an overnight sensation, read – and much copied – throughout European literary circles. Napoleon carried a copy on his Egyptian campaign, it inspired new fashions and even a perfume.

Alas, it also inspired self-harm and not only was the novel banned in Denmark and Leipzig but also the distinctive blue suit and yellow waistcoat that Werther wore.

An opera in four acts

Sung in French with English surtitles

Music: Jules Massenet

Libretto: Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet & Georges Hartmann

First performance: 16 February 1892, Hofoper, Vienna

UK première: 11 June 1894, Covent Garden

Cast & Creatives
WERTHER, a young poet  ∙ LEONARDO CAPALBO   
CHARLOTTE, aged 20 ∙  GINGER COSTA JACKSON
SOPHIE, her sister, aged 15 ∙ IRIA PERESTRELO
ALBERT, betrothed to Charlotte, aged 25 ∙  DOMINIC SEDGWICK      Sponsor Julian Hardwick
LE BAILLI, Charlotte’s father ∙  ALAN EWING      Sponsor Kevin Egan & Judith Lawless 
SCHMIDT, a friend of Le Bailli ∙  ROBIN HORGAN
JOHANN, a friend of Le Bailli ∙  ROSS CUMMING


CONDUCTOR ∙ CHRISTOPHER HOPKINS
DIRECTOR / DESIGNER ∙ JOHN DOYLE
COSTUME DESIGNER ∙ GABRIELLE DALTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER ∙ TIM MITCHELL

ORCHESTRA ∙ THE GASCOIGNE ORCHESTRA (formerly the Garsington Opera Orchestra)

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble