Massenet: Werther (Bru Zane) - MusicWeb International

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Werther (1892; baritone version 1901)
Werther: Tassis Christoyannis (baritone)
Charlotte: Véronique Gens (soprano)
Sophie: Hélène Carpentier (soprano)
Albert: Thomas Dolié (baritone)
Children’s Choir of the Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School
Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra/György Vashegyi
rec. 2023, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, Hungary
Sung texts with English translations enclosed
Bru Zane BZ1056 [2 CDs: 126]

Bru Zane specialises – invaluably – in rare French repertoire of the period 1780-1920. Werther is a much staged and much recorded masterpiece, but not in this edition. Here the role of Werther, a stronghold for generations of leading tenors, is arranged for baritone. The typically excellent booklet explains how this came about. Belgian tenor Ernest van Dyck sang Werther at the Vienna premiere, but for the French premiere no tenor was judged capable of singing the lead. Massenet began a version for Victor Maurel, the top French baritone who created Iago in Verdi’s Otello in 1887, and would later premiere the title role in Falstaff. In the end, a tenor deemed competent enough was found in time for the 1893 Paris premiere.

It was Italian baritone Mattia Battistini who asked Massenet to revise the role for his voice, which he sang in St. Petersburg in 1902. There is no manuscript in Massenet’s hand. It seems that Battistini himself made at least some of the score’s adjustments, and that baritones since have made changes to suit their own voices.

One’s first reaction has to be that this hardly counts as an ”edition” worthy of Bru Zane’s attention. It was published as a vocal score, full of hasty errors, after Massenet’s death. The role of Werther has been sung and recorded by so many great tenors that – if you know the work – a baritone will sound odd. There is also the question of vocal colour. A tenor’s upper range will especially suit Werther when he is in extremis emotionally, as he quite often is.

Furthermore, there are the baritone roles of Albert and Johan, and Le Bailli is a bass. To make Werther another baritone reduces the vocal variety on offer in a score of only six male roles (two of those quite small), and darkens the tinta of the work. Notably, when Massenet was revising the score for Maurel, he planned to switch the part of Albert, the second-largest male role, to the tenor register. On this disc, they are both baritones, perhaps a problem mainly when they a share a scene, as in Act Two, Scene Five. The only compensating change here is that at least the role of Schmidt, though hardly substantial, is for tenor voice. Also, we have an alternative higher version of the vocal line, which is an option the vocal score indicates by notes in small print. That is unique on disc, according to the booklet.

Yet, for all that, this is an impressive recording, well worth its place in the catalogue, not only for those curious about the baritone version. For a start, Tassis Christoyannis sings Werther’s role very well. The Greek baritone has a reputation in the French art song, for which sensitivity to the language is essential. His Werther is another beneficiary of that skill. Once or twice he is stretched a bit by a high forte, but that also suggests his character’s turmoil and increasing instability. Generally, his command of line serves well Massenet’s sensual brand of lyricism. This is certainly to be preferred to an insensitive tenor with indifferent French diction! In his penultimate scene, especially the Ossian poem Pourquoi me revéiller ô soufflé du printemps (Why waken me, o breath of spring), he sings quite beautifully. His death scene is no less moving.

Véronique Gens is equally successful in her role, and she is a native French speaker. If she no longer sounds exactly like the twenty-year old Charlotte, her voice has all the allure it needs to captivate Werther – and any audience. She is charming with “her” children (her younger siblings, Maman having passed away), and she observes the marking simplement without any vocal affectation. She rises well to the passionate moments with Werther, and, to quote the advice once a teacher gave Kathleen Ferrier, she “never sings louder than lovely”.

I think of Madame Gens as supreme in the baroque music of Lully, Rameau and especially Gluck, and in the mélodie repertoire. Even so, she is no less impressive in late-Romantic opera. In the wonderful letter scene, she modulates the emotion to make her stylistic purity more touching than a more overtly passionate account would be. Her distress when she finds Werther dying, and confesses too late her love for him, is powerfully affecting – Madama Butterfly without a trace of sentimentality.

This is a very even cast with no weaknesses. Everyone sings the French text with precision and relish. The booklet even asks: “Is there a more ‘spoken’ opera than this?” (Well, yes, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande,but one gets the point.) Thomas Dolié as a rather unbending Albert sings that slightly thankless role with dignity. Matthieu Lécroart is a vocally jovial Le Bailli, and Hélène Carpentier’s bright soprano makes much of Sophie. The smaller roles are all well taken, especially that of Schmidt; Artavazad Sargysan copes very well with that higher alternative line.

The lighter moments, such as the children’s scenes and Le Bailli’s banter, are very neatly accomplished too, ideally offsetting the looming tragedy. Conductor György Vashegyi paces the drama towards its shattering conclusion without histrionics. He lets Massenet’s wonderful score speak, or sing, for itself much of the time. The Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra play superbly, with many fine solos, such as those by cello, violin and flute at Werther’s first entry. The recording is rich and truthful, with a satisfying balance between voices and orchestra, in a set which overall is more than the sum of its parts.

Roy Westbrook

Previous review: Göran Forsling (July 2024)

Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free.