Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Massenet wrote the opera in 1887, but it did not premiere till February 16, 1892, and even then not in French but in a German version translated by Max Kalbeck. This happened at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna.^[1] with great success. The French-language premiere followed in Geneva on December 27, 1892,^[1] and the first performance in France was at the Opéra-Comique, Paris on January 16, 1893.

Performance history[link]

The United States premiere with the Metropolitan Opera took place in Chicago on March 29, 1894, and then in the company's main house in New York City three weeks later.^[2] The UK premiere was at Covent Garden, London, on June 11, 1894.^[1]

Werther is regularly performed and has been recorded many times. Although written for a tenor, Massenet adjusted the role of Werther for a baritone, when Mattia Battistini sang it in Saint Petersburg in 1902. It is very occasionally performed in this version.

Roles[link]

Ernest Van Dyck as Werther

Synopsis[link]

Time: July to December 1780.

Place: Wetzlar.

Act 1[link]

The widowed Bailiff teaches his younger children a Christmas carol in July. Charlotte dresses for a ball. Since her intended, Albert, is away, she is escorted by Werther whom they find gloomy. Werther arrives and watches as Charlotte prepares her young siblings' supper, just as her mother had before she died. Werther greets Charlotte and they leave for the ball. Albert returns unexpectedly after a six month trip. He is unsure of Charlotte's intentions and disappointed not to find her here, but is reassured and consoled by Sophie. He leaves after promising to return in the morning. Werther and Charlotte return very late, and he is already enamoured of her. His declaration of love is interrupted by the announcement of Albert's return. Charlotte recalls how she promised her dying mother she would marry Albert. Werther despairs.

Act 2[link]

It is three months later, and Charlotte and Albert are now married. They walk happily to church, pursued by the gloomy Werther. Sophie tries to cheer him up. When Charlotte exits the church, he speaks to her of their first meeting. Charlotte begs Werther not to try to see her again until Christmas Day. Werther contemplates suicide. Charlotte comforts the tearful girl who does not understand his cruel behavior. Albert now realizes that Werther loves Charlotte.

Act 3[link]

	"Va! laisse couler mes larmes" Sung by Charlotte in Act III. Sung by Jeanette Ekornaasvaag.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Charlotte is at home alone on Christmas Eve. She spends time rereading Werther's letters to herself, wondering how the young poet is and how she had the strength to send him away. Suddenly Werther appears, and while he reads her poetry, he realizes that she returns his love. They embrace for a moment, but she quickly bids him farewell. He leaves with thoughts of suicide. Albert returns home to find his distraught wife. Werther has sent a message to Albert requesting to borrow his pistols, explaining he is going on an extended trip. A servant is sent to deliver the pistols. Charlotte has a terrible premonition and hurries to find Werther. (Acts 3 and 4 are played without a break.)

Act 4[link]

At Werther's apartment, Charlotte has arrived too late. Werther is dying. She consoles him by declaring her love. He asks for forgiveness. After he dies, Charlotte faints. Outside children are heard singing a Christmas carol.

Noted arias[link]

Recordings[link]

A well-regarded recording of the complete opera was made in January 1931 by French Columbia with a French cast and the orchestra and chorus of the Opéra-Comique under the direction of Élie Cohen. Henry Fogel of Fanfare magazine, writing in 1992, counted 14 complete recordings and considered it the finest of the lot.^[3] His colleague, James Camner, reviewing the Opera d'Oro reissue in 2003, called it "one of the treasures of recorded opera. ... Unfortunately, the transfer is over filtered. The high frequencies are lost, giving the performance an unwarranted flatness. Happily, Naxos offers the same recording expertly transferred by Ward Marston, and acquiring it is a must."^[4] Alan Blyth, while giving a very positive review of the reissue of the recording with Albert Lance as Werther and Rita Gorr as Charlotte in 2004, nevertheless pointed out that "neither quite has the ideal subtlety of the best Massenet singers, such as Vallin and Thill on the classic, pre-war set, now on Naxos".^[5]

In addition, many of the greatest French and Italian singers of the past century or more have recorded individual arias from Massenet's masterwork.

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Upton, George; Borowski, Felix (1928). The Standard Opera Guide. Blue Ribbon Books, N.Y.. pp. 187–88. 
• Kobbé, Gustav (1976). The Complete Opera Book. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 864–869. 
• Werther at Bob's Universe
• Huebner, Steven (2006). French Opera at the Fin de Siecle: Werther. Oxford Univ. Press, US. pp. 113–134. ISBN 978-0-19-518954-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=KSQGZOTQKmwC&pg=PA113&dq=%22Stagecraft+Massenet%27s%22. 

External links[link]

• Werther: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Werther: Full orchestral score at indiana.edu
• Werther: English libretto

Kaufmann outside London's Royal Opera House following the dress rehearsal for Tosca on 9 May 2008

Jonas Kaufmann (born 10 July 1969) is a German operatic tenor. Although he has sung a variety of leading roles including both the Mozart and Wagner repertoire, he is particularly known for his performances in spinto roles such as Don José in Carmen, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, and the title role in Don Carlos.^[1]

Early life and education[link]

Kaufmann was born in Munich. His father worked for an insurance company, and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. He had one older sister. He started studying piano when he was eight, and he sang in his elementary school choir. Although he studied for math entrance exams, in the summer of 1989 he began his vocal training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. While studying, he sang some small roles at the Bavarian State Opera. He graduated from school in 1994.^[2]

In 1995, after a vocal crisis, Kaufmann received help from American baritone Michael Rhodes who taught him a "new way of singing" and how to become "more relaxed in my voice and in myself."^[3] In Kaufmann's book Meinen die wirklich mich? he said, "To find a Michael Rhodes that can really help you and bring you to success is really a great stroke of luck."^[4]

Career[link]

He began his professional career at Staatstheater Saarbrücken in 1994^[5] and was soon invited to make debuts in German theaters such as the Stuttgart Opera and Hamburg State Opera, as well as international debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and La Scala. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 1999 in a new production of Busoni's Doktor Faust and returned there in 2003 as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and for concerts of the Beethoven's Ninth with the Berlin Philharmonic.

He performed in Covent Garden in 2006-2007 in the role of Don José in Bizet's Carmen to critical acclaim, and also sang Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera and in Covent Garden in 2008. In May 2008, Kaufmann made his role debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca in Covent Garden, again to critical acclaim.^[6]

In 2008-09 he performed Manon in Chicago opposite Natalie Dessay and in the title role of a new production of Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera. He also sang Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival opening night performance of the 2010 season; the production was staged by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by Andris Nelsons.

His debut recording with Decca, Romantic Arias, was released in January 2008. He has also recorded a Schubert song cycle on the same label and the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for EMI.

In January 2010 he assumed the title role in Jules Massenet's Werther at the Opera Bastille; the performance was recorded and released on DVD in November 2010.

In April 2011 he returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Siegmund in director Robert Lepage's new production of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre the second part of his much larger work Der Ring des Nibelungen, scheduled to be presented in its entirety during the 2011-12 season.^[7] In September 2011, he underwent surgery to remove a lymph node from his chest.^[8][9][10] In December, he was back, performing the title role in Gounod's Faust.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Kaufmann is married to mezzo-soprano Margarete Joswig. They have three children and live in Zürich, Switzerland.^[12]

Repertoire[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2012)

Kaufmann's repertoire includes the following:

• Abert: Ekkehard - title role
• Beethoven: Fidelio - Florestan, Jaquino
• Berlioz: La damnation de Faust - Faust
• Bizet: Carmen - Don José
• Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur - Maurizio
• Gounod: Faust - title role
• Humperdinck: Königskinder - Königssohn
• Massenet: Manon - Des Grieux
• Massenet: Werther - title role
• Monteverdi:Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria - Telemaco
• Monteverdi:L'incoronazione di Poppea - Nerone
• Loewe: Drei Wünsche- Hassan
• Mozart: Così fan tutte - Ferrando
• Mozart: Die Zauberflöte - Tamino
• Mozart: Idomeneo - title role
• Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Belmonte
• Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Tito
• Paer: Leonora - Florestano
• Paisiello: Nina, o sia La pazza per amore - Un Pastore + Lindoro
• Puccini:La Rondine - Ruggero
• Puccini: La bohème - Rodolfo
• Puccini: Tosca - Cavaradossi
• Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia - Almaviva
• Schubert: Fierrabras - title role
• Marc Schubring: Cyrano de Bergerac - Christian
• Smetana: The Bartered Bride - Hans
• Verdi:Falstaff - Fenton
• Verdi: La traviata - Alfredo
• Verdi: Otello - Cassio
• Verdi: Rigoletto - Duca
• Verdi: Don Carlos - title role
• Wagner: Tannhäuser- Walther
• Wagner: Parsifal - title role
• Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Walther
• Wagner: Die Walküre - Siegmund
• Wagner: Lohengrin - title role

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website jonaskaufmann.com
• Jonas Kaufmann on bach-cantatas
• Unofficial Website

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia. (January 2011) Don't speak German? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the German article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|de|Uwe Janson}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Uwe Janson (born 6 November 1959, Königswinter) is a German screenwriter, director and producer. He has worked in Germany and the United Kingdom, including Business with Friends for the British Film Institute and the BBC (1991) and the British-German co-production The Sinking of the Laconia (2010; UK premiere 2011).

External links[link]

• http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0418130/

This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (February 2012)

Pilar Miró (Madrid, 20 April 1940 – Madrid, 19 October 1997) was a Spanish screenwriter and film director.

She directed TVE from 1986 to 1989, and in the 90's, the weddings of the daughters of King Juan Carlos I. In 1992, her film Beltenebros won the Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.^[1] Her film El pájaro de la felicidad was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.^[2]

In 1995, she was a member of the jury at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival.^[3]

Filmography as film director[link]

• La petición (1976)
• El crimen de Cuenca (1979)
• Gary Cooper que estás en los cielos (1980)
• Hablamos esta noche (1982)
• Werther (1986)
• Beltenebros (1991)
• El pájaro de la felicidad (1993)
• El perro del hortelano (1995)
• Tu nombre envenena mis sueños (1996)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pilar Miró at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a Spanish film director is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Roberto Alagna in 2004

Roberto Alagna (born 7 June 1963) is a French-Italian tenor. He was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.

Early years[link]

Alagna was born outside of the city of Paris in 1963 to a family of Sicilian (Italian) immigrants . As a teenager, the young Alagna began busking and singing pop in Parisian cabarets,^[1] mostly for tips.^[2] Influenced primarily by the films of Mario Lanza, but also from recordings of many historic tenors, he then switched to opera, but remained largely self-taught.^[3][4]

Career[link]

After winning the Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition, Alagna made his professional debut in 1988 as Alfredo Germont in La Traviata with the Glyndebourne touring company.^[5] This led to many engagements throughout the smaller cities in France and Italy, mainly again as Alfredo, a role he would eventually sing over 150 times. His reputation grew and he was soon invited to sing at major theaters such as La Scala in 1990, Covent Garden in 1992 and the Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo in 1996. His performances of Roméo in Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod at Covent Garden in 1994 (opposite Leontina Vaduva) catapulted him to international stardom.^[6]

Alagna opened the 2006/07 season at La Scala on 7 December 2006 in the new production of Aïda by Franco Zeffirelli. During the second performance on 10 December, Alagna, whose opening performance was considered ill-at-ease, was booed and whistled from the loggione (the least expensive seats at the very back of La Scala), and he walked off the stage. The tenor's reaction to his public criticism was denounced as immature and unprofessional by La Scala management and Zeffirelli, who said, “A professional should never behave in this way. Alagna is too sensitive, it is too easy to hurt his feelings. He does not know how to act like a true star.”^[7] The role of Radames was taken over successfully for the rest of the performance by his understudy Antonello Palombi, who entered on stage wearing jeans and a black shirt.^[8] In 2007 while at the Metropolitan Opera singing the role of Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, Alagna replaced the indisposed Rolando Villazon as Romeo in Roméo et Juliette opposite Anna Netrebko for two performances in September and two performances in December. His wife had flown to New York to be with him for the September engagements, and as a result was fired from the Lyric Opera of Chicago for missing her rehearsal dates for La Bohème. Alagna was also engaged by the Metropolitan Opera at the last minute to cover for the indisposed Marco Berti in a 16 October 2007 performance of Aida. After the performance, the audience gave him a standing ovation.^[9] The 15 December performance of Roméo et Juliette starring Alagna and Netrebko was broadcast by the Met into 447 theaters worldwide in high definition and seen by about 97,000 people.^[10] Controversy, however, continued to shadow his career. In September 2011, a disagreement with the veteran conductor Alain Lombard in rehearsals for Gounod's Faust forced the Paris Opéra to choose between conductor and star tenor. They chose Alagna and Lombard had to leave.^[11]

Repertoire[link]

In recent years Alagna has been an advocate of restoring to prominence neglected French operas - Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, Massenet's Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, Lalo's Fiesque, and new works Vladimir Cosma's Marius et Fanny and his brother David Alagna's Le dernier jour d'un condamné. He has also recorded light music with a hommage album to Luis Mariano, Sicilien, and Pasión.

Personal life[link]

Alagna's first wife, Florence Lancien, died of a brain tumor in 1994; they had one daughter, Ornella, who was born in 1992. In 1996, he married Romanian soprano, Angela Gheorghiu.^[12] The couple have sung together often onstage and have made many recordings together both of duets and arias and complete operas. Their joint album, Duets & Arias, peaked at #42 in the UK Albums Chart in May 1996.^[13] The two singers also starred in a film version of Puccini's Tosca directed by French film director Benoît Jacquot.^[14] In October 2009, Alagna said in an interview in Le Figaro that he and Angela Gheorghiu had separated.^[15] Following the separation, Gheorghiu declined to appear opposite him in Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in December 2009.^[16] Alagna and Gheorghiu announced that they were back together in March 2011.^[17][18]

Alagna has worked together on several projects with his brothers Frédérico Alagna and the stage director and composer David Alagna. The three brothers recorded an album of light music Serenades, and worked together on the younger brother David's opera based on Hugo's Last Day of a Condemned Man. Alagna has often sung Alfano's Cyrano opposite his sister-in-law Natalie Manfrino as Roxane.

Discography[link]

• 2011: Pasión

References[link]

External links[link]

• Roberto Alagna at the Internet Movie Database
• Reviews, articles, photos and future schedules from The Opera Critic
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• Concert photos