Werther

Premiere on 15. May 2027

Composer Jules Massenet. Libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet, Georges Hartmann, based on Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s epistolary novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Drama lyrique in four acts (1892)

Recommended for age 12 and up

In French. With surtitles in German and English. New Production.

Introductions (in German) take place one hour before the start of each performance (except on opening night) in the Capriccio-Saal. Seating is limited, duration approx. 20 minutes.

The premiere will be broadcast live on BR Klassik radio.

>>> To the introductory matinee

Medienpartner

“Oh, ye perfect spectacle of love and innocence!” (sic) This exclamation by Werther in the opera’s first act has a paradigmatic effect on both the scene of childhood innocence, which Werther experiences at that moment, and on the entire opera. Jules Massenet bestows on Goethe’s masterpiece a powerful, deeply moving piece of music and affords the love triangle between Werther, Charlotte and Albert an emotional force, which none can escape.

The epistolary novel’s after-effects with the most famous suicide in literary history run deep into the romance era and have inspired countless artists to create their own interpretation of the material. Goethe was decidedly popular in France in particular, where Massenet was also engulfed by this “Goethe fever”, and he created an opera closely modelled on the original. Werther loves the young Charlotte, but she is already engaged to Albert and intends to be true to her promise, despite her affection for Werther. So begins a hopeless love. While with Goethe Charlotte’s love for Werther is purely platonic, almost sisterly in nature, Massenet and his librettists develop their feelings into a true, romantic love, which, however, can only be acknowledged in the face of death. Created in an age of far-reaching social upheaval, Massenet places personal individuality front and centre with an emotionality almost raised to a Gefühlsreligion ("emotional religion"). As with Goethe, depression and enthusiasm are also inseparably interwoven in Massenet’s opera. With his drama lyrique, Massenet created a musical drama of high, ineluctable emotionality, and one of the most beautiful romantic scores.

French opera and film director Marie-Ève Signeyrole, who, following her debut in 2022 with Joseph Haydn’s L’infedeltà delusa in the Cuvilliés Theatre, will now work for the first time on the Nationaltheater stage, will stage the production. Since her German debut in 2019 with a production of La Damnation de Faust at the Staatsoper Hannover, which was nominated for the FAUST Prize, she has staged works at numerous major opera houses in the German-speaking world. Her productions operate at the intersection of opera, theatre and performance and are distinguished by a clear and striking visual language. In Werther, Signeyrole explores the relationship between humankind and nature against the backdrop of the inescapability of time. She maintains an ongoing collaboration with set designer Fabien Teigné, who returns to Munich following L’infedeltà delusa, and costume designer Yashi, who makes her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper with Werther.