Lyric drama in three parts, four acts, in French
Goethe dashed out The Sorrows of Young Werther in all of six weeks. The novel, which relates, through a series of letters, the hopeless love of a young poet who chooses death to escape his torments, became an immediate best seller, at a stroke both catapulting its author to fame and launching the Werther cult: women perfumed themselves with Eau de Werther, Werther attire was hawked to men, while a noticeable spike in suicides ensued across Germany. With exquisite sensitivity, Jules Massenet found the musical and dramatic language to transform the German epistolary novel into one of the most heart-wrenching love stories in the operatic literature.
The production staged by János Szikora (set designs by Balázs Horesnyi, costumes by Yvette Alida Kovács) premiered at the Opera House in 2015. The cast features Szabolcs Brickner (Werther), Csaba Szegedi (Albert), Viktória Mester (Charlotte), Zita Szemere (Sophie), Tamás Busa (Le Bailli), János Szerekován (Schmidt) and Sándor Egri (Johann). The Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Children's Chorus are conducted by Alain Guingal.
The recording was made on 6 May 2017 at the Opera House.