SCENES from WERTHER English Version by Anne Grossman
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You will hear excellent sound reproduction on a mono player and full stereo sound on a stereo player. “Je ne sais si je veille ou si je réve encore!”—“J don’t the garden entrance, walks slowly toward the house and know if I’m awake or dreaming.” These words introduce stands in silence for a moment. But the cadencelike qual- Werther and capture the essence of a very unusual opera. ity of Charlotte’s first phrase, “JI faut nous séparer,” First produced in 1892, it seems likely that Werther suggests that she is terminating a conversation we have would be another pillar in the edifice that is Romantic not heard. opera. As Romanticism glorified reality, the operas it Since change is so important in the opera there has to inspired usually sought to reproduce reality onstage. be a constant of some kind. This is provided by the con- Massenet, a descendant of that movement, tried to ex- tinuous orchestral fabric of Werther. The scene encom- press the emotions of his characters in realistic, under- passing the first appearance of Albert and the return of standable terms. But a movement of the magnitude of Charlotte and Werther from the ball is unified by the or- Romanticism is often followed by a reaction, and Impres- chestra: as Albert leaves, the score points out that “night sionism—emphasizing the transient nature of reality— has come; the moon illuminates the house little by little.” flowered at the end of the 19th century. Although no one It has happened before, says the orchestra, and somehow would contend that Massenet’s opera can compete with we know it will happen again regardless of the fate of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande as the perfect example of Charlotte and Werther. The orchestra ties together Char- Impressionism in opera, a great deal of Werther (a pre- lotte’s disconcerted thoughts during her great letter decessor of Pelléas by 10 years) is impressionistic. MASSENKT scene, and it paints the hollow loneliness of Werther’s Based on a short, autobiographically inspired novel by last Christmas Eve. In contrast to the evanescence of Goethe (yes, an influential Romantic), the very founda- SCENES FROM almost everything else, the orchestra is always present. tion of the opera is impressionistic. “The Sufferings of The impressionistic idiom in which Massenet com- Young Werther” is in the form of letters, a spontaneous posed Werther is entirely consistent with the spirit of the means of expression that reflects the way their author novel. Given different subject matter, would he have reacts toward variations in his environment. “The de- WERTHER afforded us this foretaste of Impressionism in opera? As cision to let my inner self rule me at will and permit all a matter of fact, something happened that might have outside events to penetrate...drove me into the wonder- interrupted the composition of Werther: Henri Murger’s ful element in which Werther was conceived and written,” Werther......... ee Cesare Valletti, seno: La Vie de Bohéme was suggested to Georges Hartmann wrote Goethe in his memoirs. “I tried... to look kindly Charlotte ice bias ye Rosalind as a suitable opera subject for Massenet. Murger’s book, upon what was going on around Elias, mezzo-soprano me and let all living which, unlike Goethe’s novel, evoked the composer’s things...affect me as deeply as possible.’’ ee Gérard Souzay, baritone Then he goes own surroundings, might have fired Massenet’s sense of on to state what became a basic The tenet of Impressionism Hail .......-.6; Walter Alberti, baritone realism and produced an opera in the Romantic- 100 years later: “The result was a marvelous affinity Rome Opera Orchestra expressionistic idiom of Hérodiade and Manon. Had with nature and a warm and heartfelt response... that Hartmann (Massenet’s publisher as well as a collabor- made me capable of being touched by every change, Reneé Leibowitz, conductor ator on the poem of Werther) consulted the composer, whether of place or region, of day or season, or by any- Massenet might have been tempted to compose a Boheme thing else’ (italics added). —‘to sing the romance that had been so great a part of The libretto retains many of Goethe’s original words my life.” But Hartmann declined the offer on the com- and much of the feeling of the novel. As Werther’s letters AGT | poser’s behalf, and Massenet completed Werther. He provide fleeting glimpses rather than detailed descriptions Je ne sais seems not to have regretted the outcome, and opera is of circumstances that mark si je veille the development of his pas- one impressionistic work richer.