Werther in a nutshell: young (and in Jonas Kaufmann's case, crazy sexy) poet falls in love with woman who's engaged to someone else, inexplicably can't get over it and kills himself. This 18th century German literary character is a soul utterly tortured by love, in the depths of despair. The original emo.
What the hell happened to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his youth that made him pen such a tragic figure? He wrote The Sufferings of Youth Werther at the age of 24, and it's success was completely unprecedented. His fame was immense - Napoleon carried a copy on his campaign to Egypt. All of a sudden men throughout Germany were dressing as Werther (yellow trousers, electric blue coat if you were wondering) and there were as many as 2,000 cases of copycat suicide. Goethe regretted writing the damn thing in the first place. Despite having written many other wonderful works (including of course, Faust), many people only knew him because of Werther. The book obviously had a huge emotional impact on an entire generation of lovers - and on more generations to come.
Massenet was the leading opera composer in France after the death of Bizet. He described himself in his autobiography as successful, rich and churning out popular operas one after the other (not exactly truthful, that autobiography). His music is generally regarded as "thin"; although Debussy was kinder, saying it was Massenet's "ability to please" that his rivals found hard to forgive - meaning, the guy could write a tune but it was all pretty light. Why this is seen to be a bad thing I will never understand. In my mind, "light" is often a synonym for "pretty tunes" and what's the objection to that?
As for Werther, arguably the best of the lot, in John Allison's review he says "the first two acts always feel as if Massenet is dousing Goethe in French perfume." Irreverent opera critic (and former deputy chair of Covent Garden) Sir Denis Forman describes Werther thus: "If operas were novels, Werther would be classed as a novella, miles above Barbara Cartland but based on the same quasi-religious belief that romantic love is pretty well the only important thing going on in the world." It therefore makes a lot of sense that, as a fan of chick lit and romantic comedies, I rather love Werther.
I sat in the movie theatre watching the Met Opera's latest production and felt the music (and Jonas Kaufmann's beautiful face) filling every corner of my being. With the wonderful invention that is subtitles, I found the translation of the libretto eloquent and understandable. It's not exactly a difficult plot to follow and for that I was grateful. As much as I love Magic Flute, and as many times as I have sung it, it is unnecessarily complicated.
Werther and Charlotte get friendly at a ball in the super-cute town of Wetzlar. Werther falls hard and fast. But Charlotte has promised her dying mother that she would marry Albert, and she simply can't break that promise. This seems to make Werther love her even harder. We are in a time where virtue, goodness, moral excellence (etc) is valued more in a woman than self-confidence and a sense of humour. Charlotte goes ahead and marries Albert and Werther just won't let up. Professions of love (and threats of suicide) every time she turns a corner. By Act III she seems to have a turned a corner herself, and finally decides she loves him too but of course it's much too late for the young pair and nothing can be done except for Werther to shoot himself (with one of Albert's pistols, no less), and die in Charlotte's arms.
As we strive across the international opera world to appeal to new, younger audiences, some questions have to be poised: namely, what is the big deal about Charlotte? He killed himself because he couldn't be with her. Was she that great? Can a modern audience even begin to empathise with such a character?
Now, without turning a "light" opera blog into a commentary on suicide, I would like to acknowledge that depression is a very serious illness that affects all ages, all sexes, all socio-economic groups in all countries. If we assume that the fictional Werther suffers from depression, and that Charlotte's perceived rejection is the straw that breaks the camel's back, I think yes, a modern audience can empathise.
If the fictional Werther is not suffering from depression, but rather, heartbreak, it's pretty tempting to run onto the stage, grab him by the scruff of the neck, shake him violently and then offer to lend him a copy of It's Called A Break-up Because It's Broken. Again, without belittling heartbreak (it physically hurts!) it is something that people can live with and work through and most of the time, they move on and love again.
The general consensus - feel free to disagree - is that Werther is a pain in the ass. Again, Sir Denis Forman: "romantic love on a suicidal scale is hard enough to take even with the noblest of heroes, but when the suicide is committed by someone you would have been glad to have got rid of in Act I, the impact is negligible." My beef with Werther is that he has no respect for Charlotte's promise to her mother, for Charlotte's marriage, nor, it would seem, for Charlotte herself. What kind of person writes a letter to an innocent young woman saying "I'm going to KILL MYSELF and it's BECAUSE OF YOU!"? If you really loved someone, as Werther claims he loves Charlotte, would you leave them to carry that hideous guilt trip the rest of their lives? (I'm now struggling now to work "Jonas" and "putting the onus" into an appropriate sentence.)
FIRST TIME AT WERTHER?: What You Need To Know
- You're looking at about 3 hours 15 minutes. Utilising the toilet break is recommended.
- Charlotte in the opera (Lotte in the novel) is based on the real life object of Goethe's youthful affections, Charlotte Buff. Seems she rebuffed him (you see what I did there) and married a guy named Kestner. Weirdly, Goethe purchased their wedding rings for them in Frankfurt. Later on when Goethe had gotten over Charlotte (as we all think Werther should have done!) he was pretty embarrassed about making his love for her public knowledge. It's the equivalent of Johnny Depp tattooing "Winona forever" on his arm, and then sheepishly changing it to "wino forever."
- The novel played a big part in the Sturm und Drang cultural movement in which "extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements." (Thanks, Wikipedia.) What you need to know about Sturm und Drang is that it means "storm and urge" in German, and it gave licence to a whole bunch of artists, composers and writers to go deep. Real deep.
- Musical highlights: not many. But if you stick out the first couple of acts you will be treated to Charlotte's third act aria, "Va! laisse couleurs mes larmes" (go! let flow my tears) which is quite a mezzo concert/competition favourite. It's pretty short, so don't blink or you'll miss it. Apart from that there aren't too many hit singles. For hit singles, see Manon. Charlotte's younger sister Sophie is the chirpy one and "Du gai soleil" in Act II is the closest thing I've found to a French operatic nursery rhyme.
- For those of us interested in further reading....who am I kidding, just see the movie. Young Goethe In Love (Germany, 2010) is an above-average period romance about Goethe at the time when he meets Charlotte Buff who is already promised to Kestner. Aka, the Werther story without the unhappy suicidal ending. My kinda film.
What the hell happened to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his youth that made him pen such a tragic figure? He wrote The Sufferings of Youth Werther at the age of 24, and it's success was completely unprecedented. His fame was immense - Napoleon carried a copy on his campaign to Egypt. All of a sudden men throughout Germany were dressing as Werther (yellow trousers, electric blue coat if you were wondering) and there were as many as 2,000 cases of copycat suicide. Goethe regretted writing the damn thing in the first place. Despite having written many other wonderful works (including of course, Faust), many people only knew him because of Werther. The book obviously had a huge emotional impact on an entire generation of lovers - and on more generations to come.
Massenet was the leading opera composer in France after the death of Bizet. He described himself in his autobiography as successful, rich and churning out popular operas one after the other (not exactly truthful, that autobiography). His music is generally regarded as "thin"; although Debussy was kinder, saying it was Massenet's "ability to please" that his rivals found hard to forgive - meaning, the guy could write a tune but it was all pretty light. Why this is seen to be a bad thing I will never understand. In my mind, "light" is often a synonym for "pretty tunes" and what's the objection to that?
As for Werther, arguably the best of the lot, in John Allison's review he says "the first two acts always feel as if Massenet is dousing Goethe in French perfume." Irreverent opera critic (and former deputy chair of Covent Garden) Sir Denis Forman describes Werther thus: "If operas were novels, Werther would be classed as a novella, miles above Barbara Cartland but based on the same quasi-religious belief that romantic love is pretty well the only important thing going on in the world." It therefore makes a lot of sense that, as a fan of chick lit and romantic comedies, I rather love Werther.
I sat in the movie theatre watching the Met Opera's latest production and felt the music (and Jonas Kaufmann's beautiful face) filling every corner of my being. With the wonderful invention that is subtitles, I found the translation of the libretto eloquent and understandable. It's not exactly a difficult plot to follow and for that I was grateful. As much as I love Magic Flute, and as many times as I have sung it, it is unnecessarily complicated.
Werther and Charlotte get friendly at a ball in the super-cute town of Wetzlar. Werther falls hard and fast. But Charlotte has promised her dying mother that she would marry Albert, and she simply can't break that promise. This seems to make Werther love her even harder. We are in a time where virtue, goodness, moral excellence (etc) is valued more in a woman than self-confidence and a sense of humour. Charlotte goes ahead and marries Albert and Werther just won't let up. Professions of love (and threats of suicide) every time she turns a corner. By Act III she seems to have a turned a corner herself, and finally decides she loves him too but of course it's much too late for the young pair and nothing can be done except for Werther to shoot himself (with one of Albert's pistols, no less), and die in Charlotte's arms.
As we strive across the international opera world to appeal to new, younger audiences, some questions have to be poised: namely, what is the big deal about Charlotte? He killed himself because he couldn't be with her. Was she that great? Can a modern audience even begin to empathise with such a character?
Now, without turning a "light" opera blog into a commentary on suicide, I would like to acknowledge that depression is a very serious illness that affects all ages, all sexes, all socio-economic groups in all countries. If we assume that the fictional Werther suffers from depression, and that Charlotte's perceived rejection is the straw that breaks the camel's back, I think yes, a modern audience can empathise.
If the fictional Werther is not suffering from depression, but rather, heartbreak, it's pretty tempting to run onto the stage, grab him by the scruff of the neck, shake him violently and then offer to lend him a copy of It's Called A Break-up Because It's Broken. Again, without belittling heartbreak (it physically hurts!) it is something that people can live with and work through and most of the time, they move on and love again.
The general consensus - feel free to disagree - is that Werther is a pain in the ass. Again, Sir Denis Forman: "romantic love on a suicidal scale is hard enough to take even with the noblest of heroes, but when the suicide is committed by someone you would have been glad to have got rid of in Act I, the impact is negligible." My beef with Werther is that he has no respect for Charlotte's promise to her mother, for Charlotte's marriage, nor, it would seem, for Charlotte herself. What kind of person writes a letter to an innocent young woman saying "I'm going to KILL MYSELF and it's BECAUSE OF YOU!"? If you really loved someone, as Werther claims he loves Charlotte, would you leave them to carry that hideous guilt trip the rest of their lives? (I'm now struggling now to work "Jonas" and "putting the onus" into an appropriate sentence.)
FIRST TIME AT WERTHER?: What You Need To Know
- You're looking at about 3 hours 15 minutes. Utilising the toilet break is recommended.
- Charlotte in the opera (Lotte in the novel) is based on the real life object of Goethe's youthful affections, Charlotte Buff. Seems she rebuffed him (you see what I did there) and married a guy named Kestner. Weirdly, Goethe purchased their wedding rings for them in Frankfurt. Later on when Goethe had gotten over Charlotte (as we all think Werther should have done!) he was pretty embarrassed about making his love for her public knowledge. It's the equivalent of Johnny Depp tattooing "Winona forever" on his arm, and then sheepishly changing it to "wino forever."
- The novel played a big part in the Sturm und Drang cultural movement in which "extremes of emotion were given free expression in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and associated aesthetic movements." (Thanks, Wikipedia.) What you need to know about Sturm und Drang is that it means "storm and urge" in German, and it gave licence to a whole bunch of artists, composers and writers to go deep. Real deep.
- Musical highlights: not many. But if you stick out the first couple of acts you will be treated to Charlotte's third act aria, "Va! laisse couleurs mes larmes" (go! let flow my tears) which is quite a mezzo concert/competition favourite. It's pretty short, so don't blink or you'll miss it. Apart from that there aren't too many hit singles. For hit singles, see Manon. Charlotte's younger sister Sophie is the chirpy one and "Du gai soleil" in Act II is the closest thing I've found to a French operatic nursery rhyme.
- For those of us interested in further reading....who am I kidding, just see the movie. Young Goethe In Love (Germany, 2010) is an above-average period romance about Goethe at the time when he meets Charlotte Buff who is already promised to Kestner. Aka, the Werther story without the unhappy suicidal ending. My kinda film.