Houston Grand Opera, producer. Robert Spano, conductor, Benoît Jacquot, stage director. Cast: Matthew Polenzani (Werther), Isabel Leonard (Charlotte), Jasmine Habersham (Sophie), Sean Michael Plumb (Albert), Patrick Carfizzi (The Bailiff), Ricardo Garcia (Schmidt), Cory McGee (Johann), Luke Sutliff (Bruhlmann), Emily Treigle (Kätchen); Houston Grand Opera Orchestra; Houston Grand Opera Children’s Chorus; Houston Grand Opera Chorus. Creative: Charles Edwards, set & lighting designer; Christian Gasc, costume designer.).
Jules MASSANET: Werther
EuroArts 2048041
Formats: 2-CD, 2-LP (PCM Stereo)
Release Date: October 25, 2024
Total Duration: 140 mins
Giorgio Koukl | 1 NOV 2024
Jules Massenet and his monumental opera Werther, composed in 1887 and first performed in 1892, is a four-act opera based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).
EuroArts 2048041 (click to enlarge)
This opera is one of Massenet’s most enduring works and a prime example of French Romantic opera. Let’s analyze it in terms of musical structure, themes, characters, and reception. Its lush orchestration, evocative harmonies, and melodic expressiveness are well recognized and logically are most sought after if a new recording is possible.
Such a recording has a significant logistics cost in terms of the number of musicians. The prominent use of woodwinds, especially oboe and clarinet, reflects the natural setting and melancholy mood, and here, we can already admire the significant capacity of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. Under the precise baton of conductor Robert Spano, they are never imprecise or even slightly out of tune, a not-so-common issue in these scores asking the maximum from every musician.
“This is a stunningly gorgeous, extremely difficult opera that demands musicianship at the very highest levels,” says HGO General Director Khori Dastoor.
Leitmotifs are just another characteristic of the French romantic period: they are used subtly in Werther to represent characters and emotions. One of the central musical themes is the melancholy “Werther’s motif” associated with the protagonist’s tragic fate.
The listener can fully appreciate the leading voices chosen for the principal characters, such as the tenor Matthew Pollenzani as Werther. He has a warm, clear timbre, excellent technique, and well-crafted pronunciation. In the roles of Tamino or Alfredo, Pollenzani has charmed many theaters here in Europe, so it is no surprise that he results as the matador of this installment.
Of no lesser importance is the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as Charlotte. Charlotte’s themes are often marked by warmth and tenderness, contrasting Werther’s more intense emotional expression, a detail that is very important in choosing the right sort of voice. Ms. Leonard has a voice, technical skill, and interpretive insights, which allow her to handle challenging coloratura passages, tender, lyrical moments, and intense dramatic scenes with equal grace.
The vocal quartet is completed with high-quality artists: soprano Jasmine Habersham as Charlotte’s sister and baritone Sean Michael Plumb as Albert.
But the absolute peak of artistry here is, without any doubt, the conductor. Mr. Robert Spano seems entirely at ease with this orchestra, combining precision with full command of rhythmical intricacies, especially the first part of Werther, which is full of them.
The difficulty of this particular drama is that the listener must be aware of the tragic ending reserved for the main hero right from the beginning. Here, Spano obtains the right degree of somber and tragedy-filled atmosphere.
The natural flow of this highly romantic and complex music is obtained effortlessly, and the musicians respond enthusiastically. Simply put, this recording is well on track to be another Grammy nomination for the maestro.
Maestro Spano has a long list of premiere recordings of living composers and is well known for his versatility in contemporary music. It is always noteworthy that conductors with great experience and a bright arrow of scores on their palmarès obtain the best results when recording tricky scores with enormous difficulties, which would speak against the theory of specialization. Nowadays, the old idea that you must be good at, let us say, Baroque music only, has definitely been forgotten.
This album, with its superior sonic image and technical solution to the obvious problems, represents a guarantee of highest enjoyment for the listener. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Houston Grand Opera: houstongrandopera.org
- Robert Spano: robertspanomusic.com
- Matthew Polenzani: matthewpolenzani.com
- Isabel Leonard: prometheanartists.com/isabel-leonard
Read more by Giorgio Koukl.
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