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WQXR, Operavore, February 19, 2014 |
By David Patrick Stearns |
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Massenet: Werther, Metropolitan Opera, 18. Februar 2014 |
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Review: The Met's New Werther Succeeds in Haunting Ways
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Were it written today, Werther would undoubtedly be a stalker opera instead
of a tender love story of a poet who would rather die than be without the
woman he loves. Less-than-wonderful performances of Massenet's opera can
suggest brazen emotional blackmail and date-rape.
Yet no such modern
anachronism came to mind during the Metropolitan Opera's opening of Werther
on Tuesday, in a new Richard Eyre production that's an across-the-board
success, the title role being a showcase for Jonas Kaufmann's latest
triumph, perhaps his greatest yet.
Sturdier than most Massenet
operas, Werther still needs all the atmosphere it can get with its somewhat
precious story that originated with a young Goethe in the late 18th century
and was refracted for middle-class opera audiences in the late 19th century.
Though more representational than symbolic, the production looked
solidly Biedermeier but stood on the verge of abstraction with a storybook
sensibility aided by picturesque computer-generated imagery allowing changes
of perspective in outdoor scenes, not to mention birds flying hither and
thither plus digital snow (saving the stage hands from shoveling between
scenes).
The Rob Howell set design intriguingly had a series of
frames with the proscenium that became woozily diagonal in the nature scenes
where Werther is most at home and where his love for Charlotte (who has been
promised to another) blooms. The frames became upright and perpendicular for
indoor scenes where the rules of the rigid society come prominently into
play.
Charlotte's home was full of towering bookshelves, suggesting
the layers of social expectations that forced her into a loveless marriage.
Kaufmann's entrance there was the sort that star tenors dream about:
Towering, center-stage doors opened dramatically as he makes his
life-and-death play for Charlotte's affections.
The title role showed
Kaufmann moving away from stentorian Wagner singing. His best moments were
daringly soft, often phrased with a concentration of meaning that one tends
not to hear outside of lieder recitals. In fact, Kaufmann's forthcoming Sony
Classical recording of Schubert's Winterrese is indeed the work of a proper
Leider singer. Mostly, such phrases were reserved for turning points in the
character's psychology, allowing Kaufmann to chart Werther's stage-by-stage
degeneration into suicide from the inside out. Arias that most tenors sing
with full-tilt desperation were carefully shaded. As Werther died, the color
leeched out of his voice in ways rarely been heard since Maria Callas' La
Boheme recording. How often do tenors keep getting better amid the glare of
extreme fame?
In her Met debut, the French mezzo-soprano Sophie Koch
(Charlotte) matched Kaufmann as much as her less-interesting role allowed.
Though she has seemed headed toward Wagner singing in recent years, she
emerged here with a perfectly focused, diction-based voice. As Charlotte
confessed her passion to the dying Werther, Koch vividly delivered her words
of love with colors that hadn't been heard elsewhere in the evening, as her
character reveals what she previously kept under very deep wraps. One could
wish for more physical formality in her characterization, but that's a minor
problem. Amid such heavyweight theatricality, Lisette Oropesa (Sophie)
couldn't help being overshadowed.
Not to be overlooked, though, was
conductor Alain Altinoglu. With their souffle-like delicacy, Massenet operas
can either reveal their commonplace ingredients or rise like magic according
to who is in the pit, and Altinoglu has that special touch I've only
previously heard from Georges Pretre. Any temptation to diagnose (rather
than empathize) with these characters was vanquished by Altinoghu's
conviction. So haunting is this Werther that I fear it may indeed be a
stalker opera. In the hours since the final curtain, I keep sensing that
it's hovering over my shoulder.
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