In the lovely Britten Theatre nestled within the Royal Academy of Music, the curtain rises on a traditional domestic scene. Toys litter the floor and a patriarch bounces children on his knee, as the older sisters do a bit of ironing and meal preparation - the matriarch having died some years ago. Such role definition dates the action to the 1950s as much as the beige cardigans and Dior New Look dresses the elder sisters are wearing as Sunday Best. This is the Midwest of America hanging on to the coattails of the USA's post-war boom, an economic powerhouse that never really stopped long in Nebraska or Indiana en route from New York to Los Angeles.
We notice too a small chamber orchestra at the back of the stage (another innovation by director
Oliver Platt), the musicians adding to the insular, slightly claustrophobic atmosphere and we wonder if the late 19th century opera can take the strain. It turns out that it can - just.
Adapted for Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (but with a feel that reminded me strongly of
Tennessee Williams's 27 Wagons Full Of Cotton),
Werther is a grim reminder of the conflict that can arise between duty and love. Charlotte promised her mother as she lay dying that she would marry soldier boy Albert, but she loves Werther and he loves her. It - as I'm sure you realise - does not end well.
Massenet's music runs the gamut of emotions with the characters, often light and bubbly, but descending into despair in the fourth act, the cello in full cry as the denouement rushes towards us with hideous inevitability. What we lose by a reduction to four instruments (piano, violin and clarinet joining the cello under musical director Iain Farrington) we gain in the build of atmosphere as we're drawn ever closer to the two principals, trapped with them and their choices.
Ed Ballard's Werther is initially stiff, determined to do the right thing by his moral compass, but when his self-imposed exile merely heightens his passion for Charlotte, his fate is sealed. Carolyn Dobbin is very good as Charlotte, singing with an increasing range as she keeps pace with the music, the soprano sounding magnificent with no amplification in a theatre with predictably excellent acoustics. There's a good turn from Michael Druiett as the family's father, and a little bit of showstealing from Lauren Zolezzi as Charlotte's bubbly, pretty sister, Sophie, who chastely longs for Werther with some beautifully restrained singing - but Werther has eyes only for his Charlotte.
Opera is like real life but with the passions turned up to 11 - and this production is no exception. Werther may be no Barber, Figaro nor Carmen with their famous set-pieces and emotional highs, but it's an absorbing and well staged work that suits this particular interpretation well.
English Touring Opera are presenting three productions around England this Autumn - click here for dates.
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