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The Sorrows of the Young Werther: A Love Quartet Erupts Paris
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
03/22/2025 - & March 25*, 28, 31, April 3, 6, 2025
Jules Massenet: Werther
Benjamin Bernheim (Werther), Marina Viotti (Charlotte), Jean‑Sébastien Bou (Albert), Sandra Hamaoui (Sophie), Marc Scoffoni (Le bailli), Yuri Kissin (Johann), Rodolphe Briand (Schmidt), Johanna Monty (Kätchen), Guilhem Begnier (Brühlmann), Agnès Aubé, Jean‑Pierre Cormarie, Roland David, Martine Demaret, Rita Falcone, Danièle Gouhier‑Rezzi, Laurent Letellier, Odile Morhain, Catherine Pepinster (actors)
Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine, Les Siècles, Marc Leroy‑Calatayud (Conductor)
Christof Loy (Director), Silvia Aurea De Stefano (Revival Stage Director), Johannes Leiacker (Sets), Robby Duiveman (Costumes), Roland Edrich (Lighting)
B. Bernheim, M. Viotti (© Vincent Pontet)
French operas of the nineteenth century were once among the most popular in the repertoire. In the last half century, they’ve fallen out of fashion. One reason is the loss of national singing schools, especially the French, in this globalized opera world. Without an understanding of the French style, and without the required elegance and clear diction, for the audience these operas are a painful exercise in dated mannerisms or, more commonly, sadly generic pieces utterly lacking in style.
Luckily, there have been a few singers over the years, few native French speakers, who’ve risen to the occasion, making French opera sound authentically stylish. Alfredo Kraus, Nicolai Gedda, Neil Shicoff, Victoria de Los Angeles, Catherine Malfitano, Jeannette Pilou and Ileana Cotrubas come to mind. In this production, in the French capital no less, we were blessed with native speakers with an affinity for this style, not merely superlative diction in the language of Molière.
Benjamin Bernheim has established himself as one of today’s top singers specializing in the French repertoire. I first heard him early in his career, in 2018, as Faust in Chicago. He has a beautiful lyric tenor voice, ease in the upper register and his French rendered with wonderfully convincing diction. However, he’s stiff onstage and interacts awkwardly in amorous scenarios. Though this more dramatic role may not be in his ideal Fach, like Roméo or even Faust, it suits him as far as acting is concerned.
Dreamy Werther is a rather stiff character. He doesn’t truly react to Charlotte; he’s in his own world. His Act I aria, “O Nature, pleine de grâce” was his most eloquent. His emphasis on words such as “paradis” and “éblouis”, while sustaining the high notes, and his phrasing of “et toi soleil, viens m’inonder de tes rayons” were the pinnacle of French opera. His Act II aria, “Un autre est son époux!” was less impressive, being in a more dramatic register. Nonetheless, his phrasing of “une ardente prière” and the recurring “C’est moi qu’elle pouvait aimer” was quite effective. His “Pourquoi me réveiller ?,” elegantly and beautifully interpreted, brought the house down. A bis of this glorious aria would have been well‑deserved.
Swiss mezzo Marina Viotti is a rising star of the opera world. Heard last season in Die Fledermaus in Madrid, Viotti has a warm, distinct mezzo and an affinity for French singing to the point where she’s able to breathe life into the words thanks to her impeccable diction and artistic sensibility. Her bright timbre made Charlotte younger than usual. She aptly conveyed the character’s jovial spirit and kind nature as the “mother” of her young siblings in Act I. In Act III, her bright timbre made for a fragile and vulnerable Charlotte who manages to be deeply affecting in her two scenes “Werther ! Qui m’aurait dit ! Ces lettres !” and “Va ! Laisse couler mes larmes”. Restrained in the former and finally surrendering to her fate in the latter, Viotti eschewed histrionics many fall prey to at the finale, making for an effectively tragic end.
Franco-American lyric soprano Sandra Hamaoui made an ideal ingénue, as demonstrated by her recent portrayal of Sister Constance in Dialogues des carmélites this year in Valencia. Christof Loy substantially altered the dramatic effects of the opera by giving the role of Sophie, Charlotte’s younger sister, more substance. Here, Sophie surreptitiously and longingly observes the romance between her older sister and the dreamy Werther. More than in any other production I’ve seen, Loy made us feel empathy for young Sophie, usually a jovial youngster whose function is to contrast with Charlotte. The final scene, in which Werther commits suicide and dies in Charlotte’s arms, was brilliantly executed, in the shocking presence of Sophie and Albert, Charlotte’s husband.
This is neither in Goethe’s novel nor in Massenet’s opera. It’s done for catharsis: the silently amorous Sophie dies emotionally, and without ever having tasted love herself, as she witnesses the tragic death of Werther and the outpouring of Charlotte’s long‑suppressed emotions. Loy’s elevation of Sophie to a principal protagonist is also expressed visually, by fitting her into his favourite expression of femininity: Audrey Hepburn’s haute couture dress, in Acts III and IV. As with his Arabella (also for Madrid in 2023), the present production is set in his favourite epoch, the fifties. It certainly helped that Hamaoui had the looks, physique and grace for this travestimento.
French baritone Jean Sébastien Bou portrayed an unpleasant Albert, the conformist, cruel and of dubious morality. His rather dry baritone was a perfect fit for the character, especially as presented by the director. Thanks to Loy’s staging, he was the most unsympathetic Albert I’ve ever seen for this opera. I believe Loy found it necessary in his vision of the work. In Act I, Albert, the proper husband that Charlotte’s mother made her daughter promise to marry, reveals he is not all that proper. The slimy way he ogles young Sophie is revolting and a ploy by the director to show us the hypocrisy of proper Hessian (German) society. More faithful to the spirit of Goethe than other stagings, Loy has Albert vehemently insist that Charlotte herself give his pistol to Werther. (In the libretto, a messenger rather than Werther himself arrives with a note requesting Albert’s pistol as he is going abroad). By having Albert witness Werther’s suicide, and his wife’s subsequent outpouring of love for the poet, he puts an end to his contrived marital bliss. Having him frantically read Werther’s letters was a brilliant device by Loy to destroy Albert and his illusions. The only reproach I had was keeping Sophie and Albert onstage until the end. The death of Werther in Charlotte’s arms should have remained an intimate act, the only true one between the doomed lovers.
Loy’s production had loads of original ideas. Similar to his Ingmar Bergman-inspired staging of Eugene Onegin in Madrid this year, the action takes place in a sparse kitchen or dining room. Sliding doors in the centre open into the interior of the house. Pots of plants reveal an indoor garden and glass panels overlooking the actual garden. The light emanating through the window indicates the season and sets the mood. Also, the separation of the kitchen from the inside of the house helped establish the socio‑cultural climate Loy sought. This is the highly conformist bourgeois Lutheran society of Wetzlar, Hesse (Germany). At pivotal moments, Sophie and guests spy on the protagonists at the front of the stage. Grim guests at the luncheon, given in honour of the Pastor’s fiftieth wedding anniversary, look disapprovingly at the inebriated Johann and Schmidt, the non‑conformist Werther in his blue and yellow suit, and on a young amorous couple.
The young man in the amorous couple is referred to as Klopstock, which is not his name but that of poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1742‑1803), whose lyrics are used in Handel’s Messiah and Mahler’s Second Symphony, “The Resurrection”. The reason this non‑singing character is called Klopstock is that he and his sweetheart, engaged for several years, are constantly reading the man’s poems. This is a clin d’œil to exuberant love inspired by poetry, perhaps a parody of Werther himself. The character Klopstock, often drunk and outrageous in his courtship, is frowned upon by proper society. As the opera progresses, he’s sober and a conformist. Likewise, Werther goes from his idiosyncratic blue and yellow suit to more conventional attire. By Act IV, he is dressed like a dashing diplomat. The message is that the more exterior conformity, the more interior repression. In parallel, Charlotte, previously clad in pretty but simple dresses, wears a tenue de soirée with a pearl necklace and a fur coat. Dull bourgeois Albert provides no passion but he provides material comfort.
The other poet referred to in the opera is Ossian, actually Scottish poet James MacPherson (1736‑1796), perpetrator of a great literary scandal in the eighteenth century. He claimed to have discovered and translated from Gaelic the Ossian cycle of epic poems, which include the opera’s most famous aria “Pourquoi me réveiller ?” It’s not fortuitous that a canard is chosen to represent Werther at his most exalted. Was Werther really in love with Charlotte, or merely in love with love? More likely the latter, but even so, what about Charlotte? The dutiful young woman was probably flattered, but nothing indicates that Werther’s feelings were reciprocated. However, love works in mysterious ways. In receiving a plethora of love letters while enduring a bland marital life, Charlotte sublimates Werther’s idealized love and is in love at the tragic end of the opera.
The least convincing aspect of the production was the orchestral accompaniment, important in Massenet, a major orchestrator maliciously dubbed “Mademoiselle Wagner.” Les Siècles, is an early music ensemble that could not do justice to the score, especially in its most dramatic moments. However, conductor Marc Leroy‑Calatayud showed great attention to the singers by adjusting his tempi to suit their needs.
Some in the audience remained impervious to the emotional rollercoaster experienced in this brilliant production, as confirmed by the stone faces and lack of clapping from my neighbours. Perhaps they expected a more conventional, linear staging. In contrast, the majority were deeply moved by the brilliant acting and original staging, as well as the magnificent cast. This was hands down the best Werther in years.
Ossama el Naggar
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