WERTHER at Vienna State Opera - Review

WERTHER al Vienna State Opera – Review by Natalia Dantas – Vittorio Grigolo was missing from my bag of Viennese Werthers –

And’ It is rare for me to write a review in the first person, just as it is rare for me to be moved, in the theater as in life. But I am well aware that if I go to see a performance of Massenet's Werther, I willfully inflict a stab on myself. Sometimes, when there are casts of dubious quality, I even shy away from it, for a double reason: because I hate seeing it torn apart and because I hate being torn apart if it's not worth it.

The reasons for this empathy with Massenet's masterpiece are very profound and personal and I won't tell you about them here; the fact is that for me seeing Werther is no walk in the park, especially if well represented. Yet, as a self-destructive melomaniac, I can't help but go looking for potentially better editions.

And’ So it was also on 31 October 2019 at the Wiener Staatsoper, with my favorite French opera staged in the usual, now fourteen-year-old, unbearable 1950s setting by Andrei Serban.

I must have seen her in Vienna at least six or seven times…Each time, however, it has been a different experience, because obviously the singers have changed, the casts have alternated over the years. I have practically seen and often reviewed today's greatest interpreters of this French masterpiece so dear to me: from Roberto Alagna's immense Werther, to Sophie Koch's staid but precise Charlotte; from Ludovic Tézier, great as both baritone Werther and Albert, to the questionable Jonas Kaufmann again as Werther. Not to mention Álvarez, Elina Garança and several others that I won't list here…BUT I missed Vittorio Grigolo. A gap to be filled, definitely, even if I have never really been a fan of our national Vittorio

And so here he is on the Viennese stage, all heart and love, our hero. Yet, I must say that he did not disfigure, either as a voice or as a stage presence.

As for the voice, he had prepared himself by stuffing Werther with someone else's matrix; so in the first act you could recognize Kraus, in the second Alagna, at times in Kauffman's falsettos; even the great Giuseppe Sabbatini was included in this interpretative puzzle, which however was not uneven, after all, and did not indulge too much in stamping out the sounds. The falsetto, as much as it is allowed by French singing, has not been spared, but has been moderated, to be honest. Strangely, however, Grigolo had attack problems in the strong piece “Porquoi me reveiller”: precisely in inserting this phrase into the course of the very famous aria. But with the skillful rubato and the Maestro's help he did very well.

Always all heart, love and desperation, however, what was a little’ Grigolo's gesticulating interpretative transport on the stage was excessive, as was the unmotivated grimaces he made (without any technical reason regarding the emission) on his mask; which contrasted with the glacial coldness of Elena Maximova, Charlotte, who came out, even vocally, only in two moments of the opera: in the third act, in the aria of letters and in “Go! let my tears flow”.

Great absentee, for everyone, including Sophie a little’ colorless by Ileana Tonca, for Adrian Eröd's dignified Albert and for the supporting actors it was French diction: no one could understand a word of the series…

What he left a little’ Freddini was also the direction of Frédéric Chaslin: it seemed powerful, at times, incisive…in others, however, it lost dramatic tension, as in the famous intermezzo between the 3rd and 4th acts. There the thread of tension must be kept very tight, but unfortunately it loosened here and there into a fragmentation that was detrimental to the whole, which, in the hands of the Wieners, could have been absolutely sensational. A note of thanks to the wonderful brass section.

In short: an overall pleasant staging and not to be missed, to include it in my personal game bag of the most interesting Viennese Werthers seen so far, while my friend and precious collaborator Neco Verbis supplied me with Kleenex to stem the tears that inevitably escaped, especially at the second act with “Another is her husband!” and with “Yes! what she orders me...for her rest...I will do it!”… not to mention the aforementioned interlude.

The stab, alas, landed this time too. Unfortunately or fortunately? Perhaps fortunately, because the depth of this music and this singing always ends up being therapeutic for my spirit; and, as we know, the body, as long as one is on this earth, is inseparably linked to the spirit.

Triumph for the performers, in particular for Grigolo, who however did not spare us one of his own “grigolate”, finally appearing on stage with a flashy white tank top with the writing on it ” I ♥ U STEFI” and a rose in his hand. But there was nothing to complain about: only to smile, after seeing such a Werther die in the fourth act with the class of a consummate actor.

All in all, the large quantity of handkerchiefs did not go to waste.

Natalia Dantas