Werther by Massenet

[thoreau]

So - this week's opera offering is 'Werther' by Jules Massenet.

Werther is an exercise in dark emotions. It does not try to be even REMOTELY happy.

Poet (Werther) loves girl - girl chooses to marry money and not the man who loves her; only to realize once she is married to money - that she is indeed in love with the Poet. but she sits on the information until Poet shoots himself - and only as he is dying does she profess her love for him.

What makes me want to sit through 2:30 of all this powerful, dark depression? The tenor in SFO's production is the amazing Ramon Vargas.

The tenor's interpretation of the title role has earned Vargas worldwide acclaim. According to Vargas, the Zeitgeist of Werther's times valued intense feeling and emotion (Romanticism) more than balance and rationality. Romanticism was an extreme (and perhaps excessive) reaction to the culture of the preceding century.

"While I can understand Werther's suffering, I cannot personally condone his suicide solution to unrequited love," Vargas said. "I am too well aware of the great fight and hardship some people must face in order to just stay alive."

As a result of a birth injury, Vargas' eldest son, Eduardo, was quadriplegic. Listening to his father sing was one of the child's greatest pleasures before his premature death.

He brings a lot of personal power to the role - and is the rising star of operatic tenors.

Here is a Youtube clip of him singing
Pourquoi me Reveiller from Act III.