One of the astonishing facts of music history is that almost all of the great operas based on Goethe were written in France. Alongside Gounod's and Berlioz's Faust settings and Ambroise Thomas's MIGNON, Jules Massenet's WERTHER is the most prominent example in this series. Premiered in Vienna in 1892, the work is also one of Massenet's most successful operas and, in its expressive immediacy, a pinnacle of the "drame lyrique".
Concert performances of WERTHER at the Deutsche Oper Berlin have often offered the opportunity to experience the great tenors of their time in the role of the suicidal poet. After Alfredo Kraus in 1998 and Vittorio Grigolo in 2014, this time it is the turn of the American Jonathan Tetelman, who has already introduced himself to Berlin audiences as Luigi in Puccini's IL TRITTICO and as Paolo il bello in Zandonai's FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. At his side, Aigul Akhmetshina, one of the most exciting female singer discoveries of recent years, sings the role of Charlotte.
