Massenet: Werther

Rolando Villazon (Werther), Sophie Koch (Charlotte), Audun Iversen (Albert), Eri Nakamura (Sophie), Alain Vernhes (Le Bailli), Stuart Patterson (Schmidt), Darren Jeffrey (Johann), Anna Devin (Käthchen), Zhengzhong Zhou (Brühlmann)

Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden,...

[Villazon] successfully negotiates the exposed or awkward passages. In the bigger singing of the third act...there's a touch of the old, devil-may-care Villazon...Even better is [Koch's Charlotte]...But... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2012, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 12th Mar 2012
Catalogue No: 4779340
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Length: 2 hours 11 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

12th March 2012
Gramophone Awards

2012

Finalist - Opera
Opera

July 2012

Recording of the Month

Massenet: Werther

Work length2:11:51

$35.70

$48.30

Darren Jeffery (bass-baritone), Rolando Villazón (tenor), Audun Iversen (baritone), Alain Vernhes (baritone), Stuart Patterson (tenor), Zhengzhong Zhou (tenor), Jack Sullivan (soprano), Anna Devin (soprano), Valerie Zakharov (soprano), Pierce Adams (soprano), Kitty Woods (soprano), Harry Oakes (soprano), Nico Taylor (soprano), Sophie Koch (mezzo-soprano), Eri Nakamura (soprano)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden
Antonio Pappano
Recorded: 2011-05
Recording Venue: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Prélude

Track length4:18

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Assez! Assez! M'écoutera-t-on cette fois?

Track length1:58

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"Bravo pour les enfants!"

Track length5:06

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Alors, c'est bien ici la maison du Bailli? ... Je ne sais si je veille

Track length5:08

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Jésus vient de naître! / Chers enfants!

Track length4:00

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"Arrivez donc, Brühlmann!"

Track length4:43

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Sophie! / Albert! Toi de retour"

Track length2:29

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"Elle m'aime...elle pense à moi" - Quelle prière de reconnaissance et d'amour"

Track length2:23

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Interlude

Track length2:22

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Il faut nous séparer

Track length2:08

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Mais, vou ne savez rien de moi.

Track length3:45

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Rêve...extase...bonheur!

Track length1:43

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Charlotte, Albert est de retour

Track length2:03

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Prélude - "Vivat Bacchus! Semper vivat!"

Track length5:28

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"Trois mois! Voici trois mois que nous sommes unis!"

Track length2:37

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"Un autre est son époux!"

Track length1:32

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"J'aurais sur ma poitrine"

Track length1:43

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"Si Käthchen reviendra"

Track length0:56

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Au bonheur dont mon âme est pleine ... Vous avez dit, mon âme est loyale et sincère

Track length3:39

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Frère! Voyez! Voyez le beau bouquet! ... Heureux! pourais-je l'être encore?

Track length3:08

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Ai-je dit vrai? L'amour que j'ai pour elle ... Ah! qu'il est loin, ce jour plein d'intime douceur

Track length3:50

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"N'est-il donc pas d'autre femme ici-bas"

Track length3:49

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Oui, ce qu'elle m'ordonne...Lorsque l'enfant revient d'un voyage avant l'heure

Track length3:48

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"Mais venez donc! Le cortège s'approche"

Track length1:56

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Prélude

Track length3:25

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"Werther! Werther...qui m'aurait dit la place"

Track length3:28

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Des cris joyeux d'enfants

Track length3:29

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"Bonjour, grande soeur!"

Track length3:27

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Va! Laisse couler mes larmes

Track length2:29

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Tiens, Charlotte, crois-moi, ne reste pas ici

Track length1:53

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"Ah! mon courage m'abandonne!"

Track length2:39

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Oui, c'est moi! Je reviens!

Track length4:40

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Toute mon âme est là! Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle de printemps

Track length2:59

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"N'achevez pas! Hélas!"

Track length2:37

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"Ah! Moi! Moi! Dans ses bras!"

Track length2:37

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"Werther est de retour"

Track length3:04

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Entr'acte

Track length4:23

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"Werther!...Rien!.."

Track length1:15

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"Qui parle?"

Track length3:33

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A cette heure suprême, je suis heureux!

Track length4:20

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Noël! Noël! ... Dieu! Ces cris joyeux!

Track length1:42

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Ah! ses yeux se ferment! ... Non Charlotte je meurs

Track length5:19

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$1.15

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Recording of the Week, Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte

12th March 2012

Rolando Villazón brings apposite wildness and fragility to Goethe’s tortured poet, with Antonio Pappano presiding over a visceral, near-Italianate performance from the Covent Garden orchestra, whilst Ferruccio Furlanetto is heart-breaking as the ‘knight of the doleful countenance’ from the Mariinsky.

In May 2011, Rolando Villazón made his acclaimed return to Covent Garden singing the title role in Massenet’s Werther - “a perfect fit for him” as The Independent glowed. Captured on CD, Werther showcases every facet of our tenor’s prodigious talent in this signature role.

The Telegraph lauded conductor Antonio Pappano for his“uninhibited affection for the score”.

Artists

Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Antonio Pappano

Reviews

May 2012

[Villazon] successfully negotiates the exposed or awkward passages. In the bigger singing of the third act...there's a touch of the old, devil-may-care Villazon...Even better is [Koch's Charlotte]...But what seems most likely to allow this recording to enter the lists of classic interpretations is Antonio Pappano's conducting...revealing the score's stresses and strains while deftly conveying its momentum.

June 2012

Tingling with nervous intensity, Villazon's Werther is alive at every moment in the mind's eye...Aside from Villazon, the strongest personality in the cast is Antonio Pappano, who gets detailed playing from the orchestra. This is Massenet with an Italianate cut but his sense of drama is second to none, rising to white heat at the climax of that fateful Christmas Eve meeting.

May 2012

Villazon's style of singing Massenet is distinctly Latin...his characterization of the part, which benefits greatly from the live stage production and Pappano's breathtakingly theatrical conducting...strikes me as uniquely compelling, even if his singing is not scrupulous stylistically...[Pappano] brings both a Wagnerian sound and Tchaikovskian volatility...I will return to this set as often for Pappano as I will for Villazon.

August 2012

[Villazon] is fresh in tone and, most important of all, his half-voice is still in marvellous shape. Few if any present-day tenors have such an array of nuance. Villazon applies this with the music and text in mind, not to show off his technically impressive diminuendo... Anyone buying his/her first Werther who chooses the present one will, I’m convinced, fall in love with both the work and the artists.

12th March 2012

for the most part, [Villazón's] moments of wildness and vocal fragility work beautifully in the service of this most unstable of characters...Koch’s elegantly-sung, restrained Charlotte, shatteringly expressive when her guard eventually drops in the letter-scene, is an ideal foil for Villazón’s volatile hero...A third star performance comes from the pit; when I put the CD on, I was pinned back by the verismo-like drama at the searingly gloomy opening.

18th March 2012

[Villazon's] performance here — impassioned, poetic, both thrillingly extrovert and poignantly introverted — banishes most of the demons that have plagued him ...Pappano lets the Wagnerian orchestration rip in the interludes.

15th March 2012

Villazón dies spectacularly well, navigating the arc from infatuation to despair to determination. Sophie Koch excels as the remorseful Charlotte...Not a dry eye in the house.

16th March 2012

Pappano keeps authoritative control over the temperature gauge throughout and never lets the emotions boil over into abject melodrama... in the last act [Villazon's] singing is coloured by a desperate sincerity which would melt the hardest heart.

30th March 2012

Villazón is back where he’s seen at his best...he throws himself right inside the torments of Werther...you’ll either be irritated or charmed by Villazón’s rather cobwebbed habit of sliding upward toward key notes...But there are also numerous times when the subtlety and beauty of his vocal effects take the breath away...Villazón’s ardour finds its match in Antonio Pappano’s conducting. He never shrinks from the luscious ache in Massenet’s music

The Independent on Sunday 8th April 2012

The role of the orchestra is brilliantly realised in Antonio Pappano's performance...Sophie Koch's Charlotte persuades but Roland Villazón's hypersensitive Werther has more sob than suavity.

26th May 2012

There’s no one better [than Pappano] at glossing over the piece’s longueurs...buy this set for the white-hot orchestral playing. Brief orchestral interludes erupt with colour under Pappano and the score’s fruitier outbursts are incandescent

Massenet: Werther

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Recording of the Week, Jules Massenet - Werther & Don Quichotte

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