Coproduction with Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova
The second opera premiere brings another great literary work to the stage – the opera Werther, based on the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the most important works of world literature. This epistolary novel, published in 1774, achieved immediate and extraordinary success. Young people began to identify strongly with Werther, dressing like him in blue tailcoats and yellow waistcoats and immersing themselves in romantic pain and suffering that soon became known as Weltschmerz – world-weariness – one of the defining features of Romanticism. The entire period later became known as Sturm und Drang, after the 1776 play by Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger. Like the novel, the opera Werther, composed by Jules Massenet in 1887 to a libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann, explores the profound inner turmoil of the young Werther, consumed by impossible love for the virtuous Charlotte, which ultimately leads him to suicide.
The libretto closely follows the plot of the novel, with only minor adaptations required by operatic convention. The dramatic focus is placed almost exclusively on Werther and Charlotte, whose marriage to Albert is presented as a duty based on a promise. This dramaturgical shift alters Charlotte’s character, as she declares her love only for Werther. Massenet’s music was not fully appreciated by contemporary critics, as at the time of the fin-de-siècle, with its numerous avant-garde tendencies, it was perceived as anachronistic and tied to the ideals of the nineteenth century composers such as Verdi or Berlioz. However, Massenet’s Werther, composed at the very end of a century shaped by Romanticism, represents a rich synthesis of nineteenth-century musical tradition – a tradition that Goethe himself had inaugurated with Werther in 1774.
The opera Werther is a coproduction with Teatro Carlo Felice from Genova. The conductor is once again the chief conductor of the Opera of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Pier Giorgio Morandi, while the stage director, set and costume designer is Dante Ferretti. Throughout his remarkable career, Ferretti has collaborated with some of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, including Pasolini, Fellini, Zeffirelli, Minghella, Scorsese, Burton and De Palma. He has received numerous awards, including three Academy Awards for production design for the films The Aviator, Sweeney Todd and Hugo Cabret, and his work has been exhibited in the world’s leading museums.
The opera Werther was available to watch on the OperaVision platform until 3 November 2025.
