Duty, self-sacrifice subject of upcoming opera

Duty,
self-sacrifice subject of upcoming opera

BY ELLEN CHANG
Rice News staff

The moving story
of one man’s unrequited love for a young woman who
is already betrothed is told in Jules Massenet’s opera
“Werther.”

The opera will
be performed by the Shepherd School Opera and the Shepherd
School Chamber Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. March 25-31 in the
Wortham Opera Theater, Alice Pratt Brown Hall.

Artist teacher
in opera studies Debra Dickinson will direct the opera,
and Steven Osgood, a conductor and pianist, will be the
guest conductor. The opera will be sung in French with subtitles
in English.

The opera is
based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s popular 1774
novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (Die Leiden
des jungen Werthers). Goethe became internationally known
after this novel was published even though he was already
well-known for his plays, essays and lyrical verses.

The semi-autobiographical
novel is based on Goethe’s unrequited love for Charlotte
Buff, nicknamed “Lotte.” Even after finding out
Charlotte was already engaged to Johann Christian Kestner,
Goethe befriended the couple and spent an idyllic summer
with them.

The suicide in
the novel is based loosely on the real-life suicide of a
friend of Goethe, who also experienced an unrequited love.

Massenet, the
French composer, loved Goethe’s book and captured the
feelings of the novel in his opera. However, in the opera
it is unknown whether Charlotte returns the gentleman’s
love. The opera epitomizes 18th-century romanticism and
rebellion.

On a visit to
the German countryside, Werther falls madly in love with
Charlotte, who promised her dying mother that she would
marry her fiance, Albert. Feeling duty-bound, Charlotte
rejects Werther’s advances although she has strong
feelings for him. Werther is later confronted with the question
of what will prove the greater bravery: to commit suicide
and end his torment or to accept life’s harshness and
continue a lonely, meaningless existence.

The Shepherd
School singers will be performing the baritone version of
“Werther.” In 1902, Massenet made a version of
“Werther” for the celebrated Italian baritone
Mattia Battistini, said Michael Franciosi, artist teacher
of opera studies. Battistini sang it in St. Petersburg.
The actual score remained undiscovered until conductor Antonio
de Almeida found Battistini’s own vocal score with
the changes written in.

This version
of the opera was performed in Seattle in 1989. It is rare
for an opera company to perform this version, Franciosi
said. This version was recently performed at the Metropolitan
Opera in New York.

The music in
“Werther” is of the French opera during the Romantic
Period and is challenging for the singers on many levels,
Franciosi said.

“The role
of Werther is an extremely challenging and taxing role,
whether sung by a tenor or a baritone,” he said. “
Another challenge is to be able to sing beautifully while
acting out this very gripping and tragic drama.”

Through the melodies
of the opera, “Werther” explores the themes of
duty, forgiveness and self-sacrifice.

Tickets for “Werther”
are $10 for general admission and $8 for students and senior
citizens. For tickets, please call 713-348-8000.