Werther in Wien with Sophie Koch and Jonas Kaufmann

Jonas Kaufmann Photo by Michael Pöhn Staatsoper Wien (**)

Massenet: Werther
Wiener Staatsoper, 28 January 2011
Frédéric Chaslin/Dirigent
Jonas Kaufmann/Werther
Adrian Eröd/Albert
Sophie Koch/Charlotte
Ileana Tonca/Sophie
Janusz Monarcha/Le Bailli
Benedikt Kobel/Schmidt
Clemens Unterreiner/Johann

Tell you what, dropping off the tube on a chilly London night, dragging your suitcase through the bus station among a bunch of drunks, running to catch the bus home (almost seeing the fluffy bed you are going to drop into any minute now!) only to have the little machine tell you that your Oyster card has : not enough money on it! puts a totally new perspective on minor nuisances such as a Carmen-ish tambourine rattling away in Werther act 1.

But let’s leave reality behind and talk about Werther...

I now know that what definitely was love at first sight (or listen live) last year in Paris is for life. (Remember Paris ? Feel free to go back to it, even I felt I had to pay another visit to my own thoughts ;-) I love this opera and I know I always will, no matter what conductors do to it and through all possible productions. I have the most wonderful memories of the Paris Werther and I am even more grateful to realise that what that cast, that orchestra and Michel Plasson have created there will last me much more than just a beautiful memory. They have shown me how complex, intricate, delicate and perfect from the first to the last note it can be and I was both surprised and happy to hear and feel that the pattern they have engraved guides me through the score again and again, no matter where I hear it.

It’s not like I went to Wien in search of the same Werther. I knew that would be unrealistic and really who wants to relive the exact same operatic evening again and again and again , identically in every detail? I guess nobody, at least not live in an opera house. But I did wonder if the emotions in the Paris Werther were a one off event. Incredibly, they are not :-) I didn’t hear the Paris Werther inside the one from Wien, neither did I log off my ears and played what I really wanted to hear in my head ;-) What happened was that I did hear, recognise and most of all feel it in odd lines here and there and most of all in the singing, not the Werther from a year ago, but Massenet’s Werther, if that makes sense.

I’ve had that luck once before, with the Lohengrin, when the first experience live of the opera was so extraordinary that it really helps you discover the secrets (which is why what Tony Pappano said in the video I have posted before stroke a cord). Something as powerful as that connects you to a piece forever, hopefully not in the sense that you will always want to go back to that one experience, but in the sense that you will identify it whenever you hear it again and strive for a repeat encounter with some or a lot of that beauty :-)

As I was saying, to me Massenet’s Werther is incredibly beautiful!

Even when it comes in such an uneven and often chaotic mix as the one in Wien. I’ve tried all possible seating in the house and the acoustics stay weird and this time I had a better view of the pit which partly explained why this must be. I think it has about as much seating as the ROH but is built much tighter, it’s a much more closed space and probably higher. The pit comes far deeper into the circle, giving from almost all seats unobstructed view into it. I know it can be sunk and elevated as most pits these days, but it basically is built totally in front of the stage and has a full wooden wall at the back, which is also the line where the stage starts. I’ve seen a similar set up in Zurich and a similar sound impact is created there, but on a much smaller scale and obviously lesser impact. I think basically from the line at the end of the pit and the hall you probably have a full circle, which makes the sound on stage basically come from behind this circle. And this is how it sounds like. With a considerably elevated pit like we had in Werther you have the sound of the orchestra flowing straight up, not exactly in a wall of sound, as the pit is very wide and deep, but a kind of fuzzy forest of sound and through the trees you hear the singers. The two sounds never intertwine or at least much more rehearsal and work on coordination is needed than time allowed for these 4 performances. I thought sitting higher up would help get closer to where the two sounds meet, but it doesn’t. Whatever you do, the singers will always be outside this sound circle, even perfectly audible, but kind of acoustically far away.

It’s surely a tricky thing to master in any opera, and in French opera all the more so.

From my limited experience, French opera and Massenet all the more so is most beautiful when it becomes a kind of flow, where individual instruments can hardly be distinguished from each other, in an indissoluble harmony which beds the singers voices, embracing them. I always imagine them when I hear something like that like a swimmer floating in the water, not really above the wave, not diving in, but merged into the surface. And that is not really what we got. It was more like stormy weather, clashing uncontrollably around the singers, sometimes in unison, sometimes threatening, sometimes leaving exposed. There were some real moments of beauty, the less the orchestration the better the harmony but the speed changes were sometimes unsettling.

It’s also my personal preference for a more intimate version of the interpretation that made me duck a few time from the crashing sound. With the drama in Werther I always felt that the music carried enormous emotion, tension, passion but in undercurrent, not exposed. It’s like a bubbling volcano, threatening nearby. The tension is sometimes unbearable, takes your breath away but in a quiet kind of way, which makes the outbreak in act 3 that much more frightening, because it destroys everything and it is final. For me this suits the story much better and makes it more credible, it’s about longing and despairing with it, but not daring.

In this case, both the production and the musical interpretation were much more out there. The plot transposed to the 50’s with a large linden tree dominating the stage. I liked the way the tree want through the seasons and it’s bareness in the end was definitely atmospheric. I didn’t care much about the rest, it neither disturbed nor did it add a lot I felt. I am generally not sure if stripping the drama of its intimacy and shyness improves it. For me it doesn’t really. For Werther and Charlotte it doesn’t really seem to be love at first sight, there is already an obvious connection, Sophie is much more than a teenager feeling shy pangs of first love and not really knowing what to with it, she is more of the annoying clingy type and Albert’s love rather than strong and deep and steady seems or of the violent, cold hearted type. Tonca and Erod both sing well and Erod has admirable French pronunciation, but it somehow stays on the surface and there was one thing I did miss from Paris, the way Tezier knew how to enrich every line with feeling and meaning. It’s the same story, but nothing is hidden, nothing is implied, it is all out there in the open. It feels mundane, sometimes bordering on stale, or it would threaten to become so, were it not for the lead singers :-)

Sophie Koch Photo by Patrick Nin at imgartists

I am thankful in this case for little rehearsal time, which allowed Sophie Koch and Jonas Kaufmann to be less fused into this concept and for some of the romanticism of the story to be retained. There is a delicacy and sensibility intrinsic to Sophie, which make her my favourite in this role. Because she always seems to tremble somehow, to care, to feel and worry. She never becomes the disappointed housewife, reality never numbs this Charlotte, which is why in the 3rd act she sings with all that feeling that already in Paris brought tears to my eyes. Her Charlotte is caring, human, involved, which is how I like her :-)

Jonas also managed to make his Werther a bit wilder, more unstable, more dangerous almost if you will, while at the same time retaining his pensativeness and melancholy. His Werther is less resigned , less remorseful, more unhinged but equally driven or attracted to death both in release as in desire for peace. His “Lorsque l'enfant” had all the melancholy and mysticism that so touched me the first time I heard it. The only instance in the whole evening where the production really annoyed me, was when it ruined the poetry of that wonderful “Je ne sais si je veille ou si je rêve encore!” by having him grab a bottle of beer and take a refreshing sip on “Cette source limpide et la fraîcheur de l'ombre”. Ok, it may be funny, but it had me thinking: what on earth????? Luckily most people will not connect the text to the gesture because that irony was cheap and uncalled for and why ruin Werther’s dream? I love that aria! The way the music mirrors the words and images is soo beautiful…

The personalities they created for the characters matched extremely well and musically it’s where Massenet found that harmony one could wish for. Theirs was the element that managed to ground the music in a French sound, that essentially provided the line and flow of the opera and it was most beautiful, harmonic and filled with emotion! I could only regret that only sometimes did some solos from the orchestra find their way to this harmony while mostly giving a much bigger, rasher sound, which meshed Wagnerian with Verismo in a way that ,instead of slowly building the tension, threatened to overwhelm it. In the softest piani passages which both Jonas and Sophie almost caressed with their voices you also shuddered sometimes with suddenly intruding instrument solos gone overboard. Painstakingly spun nets of tension and emotion coming from the stage were often under threat….

I just wish the conductor and the orchestra would have worked equally as hard at showing the audience how incredibly beautiful and rich the soft and tender parts are, more so in the hands of artist like Sophie and Jonas. In opera such moments are rare and few can cherish and shine in them like these two and it is such a pity to not give people a chance to get to know and admire this as much as they do big and bold. Just because the latter is more obvious and more recognisable does not mean it is the only beauty worth admiring :-)

Which is maybe the right moment to explain about the two production photos you see.

You may have noticed, or not, that I am making an exception and not bringing you photos from published reviews or the page of the Staatsoper itself. Consider this is a special treat ;-) These are two only 2 production photos that i actually own.

(The only other printed production material i own is a poster of a ROH production, the Don Giovanni, bought to cheer up the empty walls between moving boxes into my London apartment as this was the first opera I saw when new in town :-))

You may wonder, why if I don’t even particularly like this production? I could say, well, I bought them before seeing it ;-))) Which is true, but I did know more or less how the production looked like when I did. I actually never meant to buy them either. I like to browse around opera shops and Arcadia (the one at the Wien Staatsoper) is full of treasures of old times, with gazillions of CDs and signed pictures of almost any singer you have heard of, it’s more like a mini-museum than a shop. So in i went with a friend of mine and we had a breeze around and gave some “serious” consideration to the business the opera houses are making with photos, calendars and such ;-) I still believe the ROH could make more money out of this, if they sold the right pictures and posters. As the lady at the counter informed us, such pictures and posters sell very well. Yep, the margin on something that must cost pennies to make and sells at 10 times that is considerable ;-) In any case we looked at their current year calendar (check out here if curious) but I think it is overpriced, I don’t like all of the 12 images, I can’t have a calendar and keep it on January the whole year and even less if all the other pictures are better taken than that one! So after commenting about the calendar (ok, a particular picture in the calendar which we both agreed was a particularly good one! But can’t have that month up for a whole year either!)we moved on to the Werther pictures and there were loads of them!

So I went: no, no, no,no, no… can I see that one please? So the lady wants to go inside to get some and I go: No, no, I don’t want to buy them I just want to look at them please. She: looks at me (“this is the craziest one yet!”), sighs deeply and proceeds to take out the pins of the postcard size photo I was pointing to. I study that one and go : “can I see the other one too please?” She : pointing to the board: “which one?” Me: “the other bloody one please”. So there I stand twisting and turning them. I already know I am in trouble when looking at them I hear Jonas voice singing… The one where he lies on the bed goes : “Là-bas au fond du cimetière,/il est deux grands tilleuls!” and the other “Père! Père! Père, que je ne connais pas, /en qui pourtant j'ai foi, parle à mon coeur, appelle-moi!Appelle-moi!” (i know it’s still the 4th act i am looking act, give me some credit! But it is that what I am hearing that the picture suggests to me).

Ok, damn Massenet! I am gonna give in and buy one, but which? It’s about choosing what I like to hear most… and I can’t. It’s like deciding what Jonas does best… what do I prefer in his singing? The soft, sensitive, touching piani? The power and strength, the force of rage and desperation? My turn to sigh and grunt in frustration, purse out, here you go, I am taking both! I was still mumbling about what on earth I was going to do with them, now that I had bought them?

And I’d rather not be thinking about the saleswomen doubling over with laughter as soon as the door closed behind us…

Jonas Kaufmann Photo by Michael Pöhn Staatsoper Wien

Back to the performance a few hours later. There had been clapping at the end of act 1 and 2 and the singing was gorgeous, so it was obviously going well. And I was looking forward to the Letter aria from Sophie, to those dark threatening accords when Werther appears “Oui! c'est moi! je reviens” and well, to all the rest of it. While the audience as it turned out had been waiting all night for their chance of giving some enthusiasm they were feeling back.

Does any moment in this opera strike you as rewindable and repeatable in an instant? Probably not, me neither :-) The drama builds in such a tight way and spirals out musically into such tension… But that would be forgetting that one aria in this opera is known much more than the rest and is recognisable for everyone in the audience. And in certain circumstances it becomes about the aria more than the opera itself or the drama. And if perfectly delivered it will bring the audience to such a state of euphoria that it creates the opportunity for a naturally very enthusiastic public to stop the show with Bravo shouts and clapping and well, requests of encore. And stop it they did, for about 3 full minutes.

I’ve witnessed encores before, I’ve even asked for them before :-) But I have to say it was for Verdi or Rossini or Donizetti pyrotechnics. I don’t think somebody can spontaneously pour their heart out…twice in a Flower song… or look death in the eye and back at life for the last time... twice… in E lucevan, nor did I believe Werther could recite Ossian twice in the same night. I did believe the audience would ask for it :-) There is something the audience in Wien share with the one at the Met, their incredible enthusiasm and the fervent way they express it and I believe there is no greater compliment that an audience can pay an artist than telling them their rendition of an aria was so beautiful they must hear it again!

In Paris I would have hit anyone who would have dared to interrupt the music until the end with either clapping, shouting or even ... breathing ;-) Only quiet sobbing was allowed :-)

But this wasn’t Paris and after 3 min of cheers, a pause, more clapping and generalised laughing when the orchestra got signals wrong and tried to continue, there really wasn’t any drama being interrupted. The audience needed to express how much they admire Jonas and the only way to actually get the show rolling again was, well, to give generously what was asked for so fervently :-) That is what I thought afterwards, but when I heard the music and heard him start to sing “Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle du printemps” I think I literally stopped breathing. I thought he sang it even more emotionally the second time around, which is what I said when I asked for the autograph much later(*) but honestly I don’t know if it was just the emotion from the singing or my own emotion and my mind flashing : OMG Jonas is doing an encore! It’s his first encore….

Took me way more to process that than it took Sophie and Jonas to get things going and I snapped back when an absolutely too real looking pistol was handed over.

The interlude to act 4 could have been more sensitive and I did miss the shot itself… it was weird not hear it, especially since Werther had a more than real injury… I don’t know if the shot is actually written in the score, but the music suggests a peaceful, although very sad passing, and end, but somehow a release and I felt the shot rightly jolting us back to a very real reminder that this is not a natural passing, but a self-inflicted death of someone who is so terribly desperate. I guess I am more shocked by the sound than the visuals, although gallons of blood work very well too. Except for me it was another one of those instances where the production went from strong emotional suggestion to all too literal display. As I mentioned before it was the intensity in the artistic expression and the suggestion in the music that made me want to hold on to a physical memory of the piece than the actual bloody image of the dying Werther.

In this production Albert darkly lingers about in the death scene, but it neither intruded nor distracted, as one could focus on nothing else but the last moments Charlotte and Werther spent together.

And the curtain fell and more applause came from a satisfied and touched audience. And it is when I will always feel like shouting Bis! I can’t pick out a single thing I want to have repeated on the night, I couldn’t make myself stop at any point in time , I feel driven to the end and I always feel that it has gone by way to quickly. And I am always left wanting more and encore… from the beginning to the end, all over again…

(*)Well I had bought those things and I still had them! So it occurred to me to make some good use of at least one, rather than standing there fidgeting and trying to say something like: uhhh, it was nice! Believe me, your brain would be frozen as well had you stood outside in -7C for more than half an hour trying to process the evening :-)
(**) As you can imagine now I am glad I am the owner of these photos ;-) Please notice the way the signature embellishes the photo! It’s placed exactly right to not destroy any of the expression and now instead of looking at the blood your eyes are drawn to the signature :-) Thanks ever so much Jonas! This might just go up my wall ;-))))

Update - Ok, here you go! You know you want it and i can't stand the envious glares anymore ;-))))