OPERA: WERTHER
As the finale to the 2009 summer season, Opera Australia presents its 1997 production of Jules Massenet’s opera Werther, which is based on the wildly romantic autobiographical novel by the nineteenth century German writer Goethe.
Massenet’s exquisitely lyrical score provides the perfect musical setting for this melodramatic tale of a young man’s unrequited love and subsequent suicide when he is rejected by the woman he loves.
In his first major role for OA, tenor Aldo Di Toro captures the dramatic intensity of the young lover’s desperate infatuation for Charlotte, the eldest daughter of the bailiff, as he watches her en famille in the peaceful setting of her family home in the south of France.
Canadian mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier gives us a Charlotte who loses her composure as Werther’s passion shakes her loyalty and sense of duty towards Albert, her fiancé and new husband, sung by American bass-baritone Andrew Schroeder.
Directed by Elijah Moshinsky in 1997 and reprised in 2009 by Elke Neidhardt, this production exploits the theatrical traditions of the silent film (Losier’s hand-wringing and exaggerated facial expressions) to extract maximum emotion from this tragic tale.
Designed by Michael Yeargan, the gorgeous set evokes the soft pastel colours of the southern French countryside in summer and the stark contours of the winter season at Christmas.
Until March 26. Sydney Opera House. $93-$225
