Friday night opera is Massenet’s Werther

 Friday night Slippedisc, courtesy of OperaVision,  brings you an opera rarely performed in the English speaking world.  Adapted from Goethe’s novel, Jules Massenet’s opera Werther is a jewel of French lyric repertoire. Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie shares the sober and elegant staging by Bruno Ravella   and invites the famous Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux to sing Charlotte for the first time, alongside a young and almost exclusively French-speaking cast conducted by Jean-Marie Zietouni.

The Plot: Charlotte only married Albert out of duty but continues to love Werther without admitting it to herself and even less to him. The young man despairs at seeing his advances rejected and will not taste the love that the young woman comes to confess too late.

Available from  Friday 24.12.2021 at 1900 CET, 1800 London, 1300 NY

Here is an extract from tomorrow evening’s performance.