Back in May 2005, I reviewed
the CD release of this opera featuring
Andrea Bocelli. My colleague Göran
Forsling was rather more positive about
it than me [review],
and urged potential purchasers to give
it a chance. In that review I outlined
the five areas that it seems to me any
production of Werther should seek to
address musically, and I still stick
to those. In making these comments I
refer back to Pappano’s conducting of
the score at Covent Garden last season.
This production measures up as follows.
1. Scaling and balance
within the orchestral playing: the beauty
of Massenet’s orchestration is to be
found in the winds set against the strings:
The orchestra is recorded with full
enough tone, and in such a way as to
favour the strings over the winds –
much to the detriment of the work as
a whole in my view, as in the winds
lies much of Massenet’s compositional
inventiveness. This is not to suggest
that the woodwind are absent from things,
just that they do not quite have the
presence that they might. Pappano’s
reading placed much greater interest
on the winds as a whole. Regarding the
scaling of the orchestral performance,
this is an important factor with this
work as it should reflect the domestic
nature of the setting. This is perhaps
captured being slightly on the large
side of intimate, but given that the
Wiener Staatsoper – the house where
the work was premiered – is hardly of
compact proportions such projection
and scaling of playing is acceptable.
2. Allied to this is
the sympathy of the conductor to the
true French idiom – a generic sound
or approach will not do, nor will a
lack of dynamism in the production as
a whole:
Philippe Jordan’s reading
I would say is not wholly in the French
idiom – though this brought to mind
an interesting fact about Massenet and
the composition of Werther. Just prior
to the composition of the opera, Massenet
– like so many other French composers
– visited Bayreuth to take in the Wagner
experience. And, as with so many others
– even Debussy who most staunchly resisted
Wagner’s influence – Massenet’s music
was from then on coloured with the reflective
timbre of the Bayreuth master. This
Jordan brings out most obviously through
the strength and relative rigidity of
his interpretation in contrast to Pappano’s
more openly lyrical reading, though
also the tone Jordan obtains from the
orchestra suggests a German influence.
At times I find Jordan’s orchestral
sound just a touch bland – but in this
regard it is better by far than the
bland-beyond-belief reading achieved
by Yves Abel on Decca’s Bocelli set.
Jordan keeps the tempi and action moving
reasonably well, although inevitably
at the end of big numbers the audience
intrude somewhat to dispel the atmosphere
and disrupt the flow.
3. The long, taxing
tenor part requires a complete palette
of mood and expression throughout the
range: Marcelo Álvarez also took
the title role in the production conducted
by Pappano at Covent Garden. Whilst
he may not be the most natural stage
actor (he favours the old technique
of ‘stand and deliver’) or perhaps the
most obvious presence as Werther, he
sings at all times most persuasively
to put across the inner tumult, frustration
and torment of the character. In big
moments – indeed one could say, throughout
– his delivery tends towards the declamation
side of things, though in quieter moments
he shades down to good effect. Vocally
he is in superb shape, and his feeling
for the words is most readily reflected
in his facial expressions, that draw
you into his death scene rather powerfully.
4. The balancing of
the female leads (do you balance Sophie,
a soprano role, with a mezzo Charlotte
or another soprano – and if so of what
vocal size and timbre, so they are distinct?):
Elina Garanča
as Charlotte possesses, like Álvarez,
a strong, rich voice that is not without
its steely aspect. She sings the role
forcefully and characterises with certainty.
I can imagine that her portrayal might
have come across slightly better in
the house than it does under
the close scrutiny of cameras, but there
is little if anything to cause much
displeasure short of an occasional hardness
of tone that creeps in when in extremis.
Sophie too is cast as a soprano role,
but Ileana Tonca’s voice is appropriately
somewhat lighter than Garanča’s
giving the roles their much needed balance
against one another. Tonca’s acting,
whilst restrained, also shows sensitivity
to character.
5. Subsidiary roles
should draw out sufficient character
beyond their vocally limited parts:
I found the lesser parts as uninvolving
here as I have found them elsewhere.
This, I am afraid, rests largely at
the feet of Massenet, given that he
gave the characters relatively little
to work with. None of the singers here
though stands out for the wrong reasons,
with Alfred Šramek making a brave fist
of Le Bailli. The children’s chorus
are adequate but not what one would
expect were this a studio performance.
This is a version with
much to recommend it, even though it
is not the last word on Massenet’s score.
In overall terms, comparing Decca’s
audio recording and this DVD musically
I find much in favour of the DVD. The
stage production presented here, however,
might be an area for slight concern.
Not that director Andrei Serban’s conception
of the drama is terribly strange: his
vision of Sophie as a lesser Charlotte
can carry credence with the right protagonists,
as largely he has here. The domestic
setting, simultaneously indoors and
out, is a dramatic device that has to
be accepted, but in the end it does
afford many opportunities for atmosphere
– Werther’s emergence from the shadows,
snowfall, etc. – that capture something
inherent in the score, though the mixing
of furniture from different periods
throughout the production never quite
sits easy on the eye if one is sensitive
to these things.
The ‘bonus’ of Marcelo
Álvarez and Elina Garanča
at the Vienna Opera Ball singing a zarzuela
duet is pleasing enough, but I would
suggest that and no more.
Evan Dickerson
Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper / Philippe
Jordan 
TDK
DVD DVWW-OPWER [132’00" + 12’00"
bonus] 
