Class Struggle

Werther

Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts., through March 25, 215-928-2110

Massenet’s Werther makes a welcome return appearance in the OCP’s current production. There is a boomlet in Massenet going on just now, perhaps owing in part to lots of good new recordings, but also because of a belated recognition that much 20th century opera — certainly Puccini and Debussy — benefited from his influence. Werther (1892), the eighth of Massenet’s nearly 30 operas, is tuneful, elegantly crafted and genuinely moving.

The source is Goethe’s romantic novella of the same name, which captures in letters the intensity of a young man’s passion for the wife of another man — one of a few absolutely eternal conflicts in literature. It also presents one of the main choices a modern young man or woman has to make: whether to follow your heart, or cave in and join the middle class.

This being French opera, the libretto is calmer than the German original, so we don’t see Werther’s brains sticking out where he shot himself over his Charlotte — but it is opera and the arias and duets have plenty of passion in them. Werther has held the boards for over a century now, and the full house on Friday, March 16 at the Academy was attentive and pleased.

The voices of the three principals seemed aptly suited to the characters themselves. On this evening, our Werther, the distracted, obsessed poet, was sung by the Ukrainian tenor Misha Didyk. His voice is bright at the top, and a bit unwieldy below, but he sang with conviction, as his character struggled to control his feelings, which were also his undoing. John Hancock sang Albert, the conventional, stolid husband of Lotte. His rock solid baritone provided reassuring middle class support as this little world tottered.

Lotte, strung between the wild world of Werther and the lifeless horizon offered by Albert, is the real center of the opera, as she is of Goethe’s novella. Rinat Shaham possesses the pure mezzo needed for French opera — clear, rather small, but flexible. She is also beautiful, and a fine actress. In the end, Werther’s suicide unfortunately leaves Lotte with Albert.

The supporting artists, among them Jennifer Welch-Babidge as Sophie and Perry Ward as the Bailiff, gave evidence of the high quality of the company. The children’s chorus was delightful. The orchestra responded with clarity and energy to Jacques Lacombe’s sensitive and idiomatic conducting, and the production and design was effective without being at all intrusive.

—Lou Camp