NON MI RIDESTAR -- Thomas Hampson (baritone) -- cfr. BATTISTINI

Speranza

Werther {61} Metropolitan Opera House: 01/11/1999.

(Debut: Rebecca Evans
Review)


Metropolitan Opera House
January 11, 1999


WERTHER {61}
Massenet-Blau/Milliet/Hartmann

Werther....................Thomas Hampson
Charlotte..................Susan Graham
Albert.....................Christopher Robertson
Sophie.....................Rebecca Evans [Debut]
Bailiff....................Michel Trempont
Schmidt....................Bernard Fitch
Johann.....................James Courtney
Käthchen...................Lee Hamilton
Brühlmann..................Mitchell Sendrowitz

Conductor..................Donald Runnicles

Stage Director.............John Cox
Designer...................Rudolf Heinrich

Werther received seven performances this season.

In this season's performances, Thomas Hampson sang the version of Werther
arranged by Massenet for the baritone Mattia Battistini.

Regarding the baritone version of Werther:

There was no transposition of the tenor line. Massenet rewrote Werther’s vocal lines, so that they could be sung by a lower voice. As a result, the standard orchestral scoring works for both a tenor and baritone. For contrast, the baritone role of Albert was changed as well and can be sung by a tenor. In the Metropolitan Opera's version. Albert remains a baritone.

Most probably, the revised vocal score was never published. The Met received scoring for its production from the Seattle Opera, which was the first company to reconstruct the baritone version from original sources.


Review of Martin Bernheimer in Opera (UK)

The Met revived its pervasively conventional production of "Werther" on January 11 after a decade's hiatus, retaining the slightly tattered, 28-year-old sets and costumes of Rudolf Heinrich.

Although John Cox took over the staging scheme from Paul Emile Deiber, and the principal roles were recast, everything looked and sounded comfortably familiar. Everything, that is, except the protagonist.

Making Met history, Werther was assigned to Thomas Hampson, a brave lyric baritone stepping in the footsteps of a century of romantic tenors.

There is good precedent for the aberration. Massenet himself adapted the vehicle for Mattia Battistini in 1902, rewriting the vocal line to keep it within a lower range, but - lazily perhaps - never altering a key signature, never even bothering to alter orchestral phrase to conform with the version of the same theme as sung by the revamped hero.

The result is a curio, to be sure, and no one - not even Hampson - would claim that it should supplant the traditional edition.

Still, this darker, deeper "Werther" makes reasonable sense on its own limited terms. If one can erase the expectations established by high-toned poet-zealots, and if one is willing to forego joy of ascending climaxes in predictable places, the rewards can be ample.

They certainly seemed ample on this occasion. Hampson sang with perfectly poised ardour, sulked magnificently, projected the French text with aristocratic point and conveyed the hero's increasing agonies with equal parts elegance and eloquence.

He was ideally matched with Susan Graham, a tall, exquisitely sensuous Charlotte who revelled in the on-going contradictions of hidden sadness and muted rapture.

Beside these two, Christopher Robertson seemed an unusually big and bluff, yet apt, Albert (yes, another baritone). Rebecca Evans made a self-effacing Met debut as an adorably bright and beguiling Sophie, the incongruity of her rather obvious pregnancy notwithstanding. The comprimario corps was headed stylishly by Michel Trempont as the Bailiff. In the pit, Donald Runnicles sustained abiding sympathy, suave momentum and, where needed, sweeping passion.