Werther

Opera in four acts and five scenes (1892)
Libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann
based on the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe (1744)
In French with German surtitles

Premiere
14 August 2023 – 7.30 pm

In cooperation with Neue Stimmen

A man who puts his feelings first, who doesn’t give up fighting for love even after finding out that the woman he desires is promised and soon to be married to another man. When he realizes, though, that she will not leave her husband for him, death seems to be his only way out.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s scandalous epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther inspired French composer Jules Massenet more than a century after it was first published. Together with his librettists he gave a voice to all of Goethe’s characters and even added a few of his own: among them six children who make up the only choir of the opera. Massenet uses colourful sounds to portray Werther’s effusive love and Charlotte’s inner turmoil.

Performing Massenet’s touching opera is a dream come true for the young talents of Bregenz Festival’s Opera Studio. Stage director Jana Vetten and set designer Camilla Hägebarth present a feminine perspective on masculine subjectivity and its meaning for those affected by it. Claire Levacher conducts the opera.

Werther Raúl Gutiérrez
Albert Xiaomeng Zhang
Charlotte Kady Evanyshyn
among others

Musical Director Claire Levacher
Stage Director Jana Vetten
Stage | Costume Design Camilla Hägebarth
Choirmaster (Children) Wolfgang Schwendinger
Dramaturg Florian Amort

Childrens’ Choir of the Musikmittelschule Bregenz Stadt

Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg