Jules Massenet, Werther (1892)

Okay, I thought, so having seen Luisa Miller, what's the next-most-well-known opera I haven't seen? And this seemed like a plausible candidate. The Sorrows of Young Werther is also probably one of the most famous novels I haven't read, so they dovetail nicely.

The plot is about as elemental as it gets: guy likes girl, she likes guy too but marries someone else, guy commits suicide, girl is sad. There's very little more to say about it. Goethe's novel of course was a sensation, and Werther is seen as one of the first Romantic Heroes, but that can be a little hard to understand from a contemporary perspective. You can just mope around and then kill yourself and you're a "hero?" What is this? Jonas Kauffman, in his backstage interview remarks that "you have always this feeling of 'come on, get over it,'" and you...kind of do. Nevertheless, just dismissing the whole thing like that doesn't seem very helpful. Sure we can do it if we want to, but in that case, what have we learned? Nothing. If you don't even try to understand these things, how are you ever going to expand your understanding?

Right, so Werther is--apparently--too pure and sensitive for this vulgar world. We may sort of roll our eyes at that if we think about it in a purely realistic sense, but there IS a certain appeal--and not necessarily just an adolescent appeal--in that idea. The world DOES sometimes feel a bit much, you know? Especially now, for obvious reasons. I mean, it's still silly on one level, but I found myself mostly able to appreciate it. Certainly, I'd say I enjoyed it more than the other Massenet operas I've seen. It doesn't hurt that the casting (here) is so good: Kauffman has the perfect voice and looks for the title role, and everyone else brings their characters to life as well. Special props to Lisette Oropesa as Charlotte's little sister Sophie; she doesn't remotely look like a fifteen-year-old, but she's very charming, and I wish her part were bigger. The production's also nice to look at in general, making prominent use of video to emphasize the changing of the seasons.

So yeah. The opera's not an all-time favorite of mine or anything, but I have certainly seen worse! What do you think the next-most-famous opera I haven't seen is? Death in Venice? I've been putting it off just because I'm looking forward to it so much. But we will no doubt get there sooner rather than later.