Opera Daily 🎶 — Massenet's Werther
Opera Daily 🎶 — Massenet's Werther
This week's Opera Daily features “Pourquoi me réveiller” from the French opera Werther by Jules Massenet
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Let’s keep the Christmas theme going this week and listen to Massenet’s four-act French opera, Werther.
Even though the opera begins in the summer, Christmas is a big part of the story and setting. Act 1 takes place in July, Act 2 in September, and Act 3 and 4 on Christmas Eve. The opera opens with some children singing a Christmas carol (which is odd, given it is the summer). However, when you hear the children singing the same melody at the end of the opera (now Christmas), it's clear that Massenet used it as a framing device for the emotional state of all.
Werther’s “Pourquoi me réveiller” (“Why do you awaken me”) is probably one of the most well-known aria’s from this opera. We touched on Werther before and I mentioned that this piece deserved its own moment, which is now here!
Massenet’s Werther takes place in Wetzlar, Germany, in the early 1780s and is adapted from the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Werther is a young (a bit arrogant, self-involved) poet who, crushed by Charlotte's rejection, takes his own life. Werther loves Charlotte but promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. After the marriage, Charlotte suggests that Werther should travel – but not forget her. Charlotte, unhappily married, has fallen in love with Werther through his letters. He returns unexpectedly (when the aria we are listening to begins); Charlotte sends him away. Werther then kills himself and dies in Charlotte’s arms.
Let’s listen to German tenor Jonas Kaufmann sing “Pourquoi me réveiller”. The recording is from Kaufmann’s 2010 title role performance at the Opéra Bastille, with Sophie Koch singing the role of Charlotte.
🎧 Listening Example: (3 minute listen): Jonas Kaufmann singing “Pourquoi me réveiller” from the French opera Werther by Jules Massenet.
What is Werther feeling as he is singing this aria?
Despair and sadness. Charlotte asks Werther to read part of a letter where he translated a piece of writing from one of his favorite poets. The part he reads is where the poet is foreseeing his death (yup, what you are thinking is going to happen…)
Why do you wake me now, o sweetest breath of spring?
On my brow I sense your most gentle caresses, yet how soon creeps on the time
filled with tempests and with distresses!
Tomorrow through the vale, the traveller will pass, recalling all the glory of the past.
And in vain he will search for the bloom of my youth,
and nothing will he find but deep and endless sorrow."
Alas! Why do you wake me now, o sweetest breath of spring!
The first phrase of the aria is so simple but so moving. So many emotions are revealed in just a short aria.
Alfredo Kraus also sings a close-to-perfect interpretation, as well as Franco Corelli and George Thill.
Want more?
You can listen to the Belgian (Wagnerian) tenor Ernest Van Dyck, the first Werther, singing the aria “Pourquoi me réveiller” here.
It’s written that Charlotte in the opera is based on the real-life crush of Goethe, Charlotte Buff. The movie Young Goethe In Love (Germany, 2010) is about Goethe when he meets Charlotte Buff who is already engaged to be married to someone else.
Happy New Year!
Grateful for your time and ears this year,
Michele
PS. Missed our last edition? We featured selections from Act 1 of the Italian opera La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini.
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Thank you. I would never have found this on my own!
Just realized I never responded to last week's post and now it's time for this week's post.
When you posted last week I did a quick playlist of the versions I have (that are not part of a full performance recording); a mix from Schipa to Kauffman.. I love comparing and contrasting artists interpretations. I think this aria one of the difficult ones ... that c-sharp to high a-sharp leap and the following pianissimo are hard. Some tenors attack that a-sharp, or blast it, or its shape doesn't fit with their prior phrasing (thinking of di Stefano and Hadley here). For my money the three best efforts of my eight are, in my preferred order, Tito Schipa, Richard Crooks, and Michael Spyres (Kaufmann a close 4th). Full disclosure, the other four are Franco Corelli, Jerry Hadley, Nicolai Gedda, and Giuseppe de Stefano. Schipa's is the best a-sharp. And Crooks with the pianissimo that follows is swoon-worthy! Old School, I'll admit, but I like Old School. Kaufmann has a really terrific line, for a modern singer, nicely connected, though not the legato from Schipa's and Crook's era. Spyres is pretty close to them in both approach and his French. Completely subjective thinking for my part (other folks would probably disagree with my choices for their own reasons), but that's the fun of being a fan of this great art form.