Performance History
Massenet started composing Werther in 1885, completing it in 1887 and submitting it to the director of the Paris Opéra-Comique Leon Carvalho that year who declined to accept it on the grounds that it was too serious a scenario. With the disruption of the fire at the Opéra-Comique and Massenet's work on other operatic projects (especially Esclarmonde), it was put to one side, until the Vienna Opera, pleased with the success of Manon, asked the composer for a new work. Werther received its premiere on February 16, 1892 in a German version translated by Max Kalbeck at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna.
The French-language premiere followed in Geneva on December 27, 1892. The first performance in France was given by the Opéra-Comique at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet in Paris on January 16, 1893, with Marie Delna as Charlotte and Guillaume Ibos in the title role, conducted by Jules Danbé, but was not immediately successful.
Werther entered the repertoire at the Opéra-Comique in 1903 in a production supervised by Albert Carré, and over the next half-century the opera was performed over 1,100 times there, Léon Beyle becoming a distinguished interpreter of Werther.
The United States premiere with the Metropolitan Opera took place in Chicago on March 29, 1894, and then in the company's main house in New York City three weeks later. The UK premiere was a one-off performance at Covent Garden, London, on June 11, 1894 with Emma Eames as Charlotte, Sigrid Arnoldson as Sophie, and Jean de Reszke in the title role.
Werther is still regularly performed around the world and has been recorded many times. Although written for a tenor, Massenet adjusted the role of Werther for a baritone, when Mattia Battistini sang it in Saint Petersburg in 1902. It is very occasionally performed in this version.
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