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by Jules Massenet, directed by Alain Gauthier

Canadian Opera Company, Opéra de Montréal & Vancouver Opera, Four Seasons Centre, Toronto

May 7–23, 2026

Werther: “L’amour seul est vrai, c’est le mot, le mot divin!”

The Canadian Opera Company is presenting Werther by Jules Massenet for the first time since 1992. The COC website calls the opera a “rare operatic gem”, but, in fact, outside Toronto the opera is not rare at all but standard repertory. Just this May there are productions in Barcelona, Naples, Tokyo, Mexico City, Zurich, Freiburg, Salzburg, Vienna, Paris and Munich. Werther is primarily a showcase for performer in the title role. Massenet wrote versions both for a tenor and a baritone. COC gives us the original tenor version and Russell Thomas as Werther is tremendous.

The story is based on the epistolary novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther (Die Leiden des jungen Werther), that was a sensation in Europe when it was published in 1774. The tale of a young poet’s doomed, obsessive love for a married woman was a precursor to the Romantic movement that placed an emphasis on emotion over reason. Goethe based the novel on an actual case where a friend of his committed suicide when he realized his beloved would never give up her husband to be with him.

The action is set in Wetzlar, in Hesse, sometime in the 1780s. We see a happy domestic scene with the Bailiff, a widower with six young children and two older daughters, Charlotte and Sophie. Charlotte’s fiancé Albert has been away for six months during which time Charlotte and Werther have become friends. Werther, in fact, is deeply in love with Charlotte. Werther finally declares his love for her, but she tells him she made a solemn vow to her dying mother that she would marry Albert.

Three months later Charlotte has married Albert and Werther is in despair. Charlotte says that for both her and Werther’s sake he must leave Wetzlar and not return until Christmas, three months away. On Christmas Day, Charlotte finds that she can’t stop rereading Werther’s letters to her and realizes to her chagrin that she has always been in love with him. Yet, when Werther appears she tells him never to see her again, which Werther regards as a death sentence: “Charlotte a dicté mon arrêt! … ma tombe peut s’ouvrir!”

As with Romeo and Juliet, the youth of the characters is a factor in their confusion and their absolutism. The production features mature performers so, unless you had read the novel, you would never know that Werther is supposed to be only 23, Charlotte only 20 and Albert 25.

When Goethe’s novel was first published, its depiction of a love that defied all bourgeois standards rallied the feelings of those who opposed the status quo. In 1892 when Massenet’s opera appeared, the view of the subject is different. Werther’s idea of an all-consuming love is beautiful on the one hand but, on the other, is also a danger to the very vision of an ideal family life that he sees in the Bailiff’s family.

Massenet’s librettists set up three groups of people who find a mild type of ecstasy within their bourgeois confines. One is the pals Schmidt and Johann for whom drinking is the key to oblivion. Another is the couple of Brühlmann and Kätchen who find ecstasy in reading poetry by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803), whose odes and hymns about nature influenced Goethe. A third is the Bailiff’s daughter Sophie, who finds peace in religion. Werther’s idea of love is grander than any of these but is so absolute he sees that there is no place in the world for him. Werther’s idea of love and life is heroic because it is uncompromising and dangerous for the same reason.

Massenet signals this through his music. When Werther first appears, it is as if a character from Verdi or Wagner had suddenly turned up in the first scene of Puccini’s La Bohème (1896). While all the other characters sing in a French version of verismo, Werther sings in the heroic style of Verdi, occasionally drifting into Wagner, and maintains this style until the end. Charlotte only moves into this style in Act 3 after she has been rereading Werther’s letters and realizes that she is love with him.

To succeed, Werther must have a tenor with enormous stamina, and that the current production has in Russell Thomas. Thomas was seen most recently here in Verdi’s Otello and has sung Wagnerian leads elsewhere. He has a huge voice and enormous lung-power, but, when needed, can make his voice gentle and plaintive. His arias are a fantastic series of showpieces culminating in the opera’s most famous aria “Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle du printemps?” Thomas, however, does his acting almost entirely through his singing so that you have to imagine what gestures or facial expression his Werther would make to suit the passionate words and soaring notes of his music.

Victoria Karkacheva has a dark-hued soprano, ideal for Charlotte. For Acts 1 and 2 she portrays Charlotte as staid and proper, but in Act 3 when Charlotte is alone with Werther’s letters, Karkacheva unleashes the full power of he voice which maintains its strength from her highest to her lowest notes in “Werther... Werther... / Qui m’aurait dit la place que dans mon coeur / il occupe aujourd’hui?” and in “Va! laisse couler mes larmes”. Karkacheva does well in conveying Charlote’s distress here and in Act 4, but it would have been useful if she had shown us the beginnings of her feelings for Werther in the first two acts.

Gordon Bintner is a fine Albert. I have seen the role that played sympathetically and unsympathetically. Albert knows that Werther is suffering because of love for his wife and he can look on the poet with pity, feeling secure since Charlotte has married him. Here Bintner opts for an unsympathetic Albert who remains suspicious of Werther despite being married. When Bintner’s Albert orders Charlotte to send pistols to Werther, it is with a stony malice. Bintner’s velvety bass-baritone is such a pleasure to hear, one wishes Massenet has made the role larger.

Soprano Simone Osborne is the singer who best pulls off playing a character of her supposed age. Sophie along with the children are the characters least affected by the general atmosphere of gloom surrounding their household. Osborne is especially fine in the light-hearted aria “Du gai soleil, plein de flamme”.

Among the smaller roles, Robert Pomakov displays his strong bass-baritone as Le Bailli. As friends Johann and Schmidt, Alain Coulombe’s bass is still rich and strong, while Michael Colvin’s tenor seems a shadow of its former self. The six children from the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus are delightful as always.

Director Alain Gauthier has chosen a traditional approach to Werther which many audience members will welcome in an opera unfamiliar to them. Gauthier keeps the opera set in the 1780s, the period of the novel. This is especially noticeable in the fine period costumes of Lëilah Dufour Forget. Set designer Olivier Landreville has placed what looks like a huge pen-and-ink sketch of a rural area dominated by a large Gothic church. The details of the set pieces Landreville has created are painted in, thus lending the setting an appearance at once realistic and artificial. This perfectly suits an opera in which we see the real events Goethe knew of through the artistic lenses both of his novel and then of Massenet’s opera. Landreville has very cleverly solved the problem of scene changes by designing a set for Act 1 that can easily be transformed for the set of Act 2 and one for Act 3 that can be transformed for Act 4. Hanging above the stage is the cut-out of a gigantic tree branch that may represent nature but that looks far more threatening than benign.

Johannes Debus leads the COC Orchestra in a sweeping, passionate account of Massenet’s score that emphasizes Massenet’s use of leitmotifs such as the urgent five-note phrase representing Werther’s passion. The orchestral interludes such as the “Claire de lune” sequence in Act 1 and the prelude to Act 4 feel like gorgeous tone poems in themselves.

It is good that the COC is finally presenting an opera it has neglected for so long. There is more Massenet to discover. Of Massenet’s other popular operas, the COC did stage his Don Quichotte (1910) in 2014, but it has not staged his Manon (1884) since 1952 and has never staged his Thaïs (1894) or Cendrillon (1899). Given how much the COC Orchestra seems to enjoy Massenet’s lush orchestration, let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long for more from this Belle Époque master.

Christopher Hoile

Photos: Victoria Karkacheva as Charlotte and Russell Thomas as Werther; Russell Thomas as Werther; Russell Thomas as Werther and Gordon Bintner as Albert; Victoria Karkacheva as Charlotte. © 2026 Michael Cooper.

For tickets visit: www.coc.ca.