Werther you like it or not, doomed love is back on the menu.

Think Tristan and Isolde, but with the drama dialled down a notch. The music is a little Wagner, a little Puccini – just without the same oomph. Chief conductor Marie Jacquot keeps the orchestra on its toes, steering the whole thing with plenty of punch and precision.

We’re in a bright, wood-coloured box – the kind that looks suspiciously like it was designed to help the singers project. The proportions are a little weird, so you’re never quite sure how big the room actually is. Are you sitting inside it or just looking into it?

The set stays more or less the same throughout all four acts. They mostly just open and close things: a wall here, a drawer there. In German Tatjana Gürbaca and Klaus Grünberg’s production, minimalism is very much the name of the game.

Everyone Has Feelings. Great.

Werther is in love with Charlotte. Completely, hopelessly, disastrously in love with her. Unfortunately, Charlotte is already engaged to Albert. Not because she particularly wants to be, but because she promised her dying mother that she would marry him. And Charlotte, bless her, is the sort of person who takes a deathbed promise seriously.

Albert, meanwhile, is actually a decent guy. He genuinely loves Charlotte, is happy to be married to her, and even asks: “Have I made a happy woman out of her?” The problem is that Charlotte has fallen for Werther – and Werther has fallen even harder.

Albert has the marriage, Werther has the feelings, and Charlotte has the problem. What could possibly go wrong?

There are certainly some big feelings here, but perhaps not quite enough to carry an entire opera. Add a production that doesn’t exactly have a lot to say, and suddenly there’s a lot riding on the singers.

Meanwhile, in the pit: Jacquot has a sharp ear for how long each note should hang in the air – and how to keep even a single note on the move. The orchestra is nicely balanced, with little solo moments popping their heads up before ducking back into the mix. Nothing is allowed to sit still for too long.

The room we’re in is Charlotte’s house. She is stuck behind these four walls – or, more accurately, stuck with the same man. It’s only at the very end that she finally breaks out, running rather oddly on the spot in front of the box. She’s free! Except… a little too late. Werther has already borrowed Albert’s gun…

What follows is the inevitable death scene: Werther stumbles through the door, dying, but insists that this is not the end. The doors and windows open, revealing the universe behind them, with the earth floating in the distance. Perhaps have they left this world behind, and found each other in another?

All in all, it was fine. The production did no harm, but didn’t quite shine. It will be interesting to follow Opera Academy student Ava Line Shokooh, who sang Sophie tonight.

Fun Fact!

Massenet’s Werther is based on Goethe’s 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, a classic of the German Sturm und Drang movement.

Cast: 

• Conductоr: Marie Jacquot
• Directоr: Tatjana Gürbaca
• Stаge Designer: Klaus Grünberg
• Сostume Designer: Silke Willrett
• Lightning Designer: Klaus Grünberg

• Charlotte: Elisabeth Jansson
• Sophie: Ava Line Shokooh
• Werther: Jacob Skov Andersen
• Albert: Theodore Platt
• Le Bailli: Kyungil Ko
• Schmidt: Jens Christian Tvilum
• Johann: Simon Duus
• Brülmann: Albin Jansson
• Käthche: Line Hugger Viderup