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The Metropolitan Opera |
Philipp Brieler |
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Perfect Match
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Jonas Kaufmann, starring in the title role of Richard Eyre's new production of Werther, explains why Massenet and Goethe are such a good fit |
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Werther is one of the essential characters of literature and opera.
What attracts you to the role?
He’s as extreme as you could
wish for—especially if you love portraying difficult characters as much
as I do! Roles like Werther, Don José, or Don Carlo to me are much more
attractive than the typical “Latin lover” characters. They’re much more
interesting and demanding, both musically and dramatically. What
attracts me particularly is the challenge to make a character like
Werther understandable and likeable for the audience. He is a
manic-depressive who falls in love for the first time, with a girl who
is promised to another guy. He’s completely fixated on her and can’t
help loving her more than his life. I don’t think it’s that easy for a
modern audience to like him. If you put too much weight on the
suffering, you risk that people will keep their distance and say, “Oh,
come on, get over it!” But to me, he is a likeable guy: this is his
first love, and he suffers so much because he isn’t prepared for the
pains of unhappy love. So I try to balance the suffering and
self-destruction with other aspects—his religious faith, his fascination
with the miracles of nature, and all those things we think of as
Romanticism.
How would you characterize the role vocally?
Like most tenor roles in the French repertoire, Werther is both
lyrical and dramatic—sometimes very sweet and soft, sometimes very
passionate, even aggressive… There are so many beautiful and magical
moments in Massenet’s music.
Do you see a difference between
Massenet’s Werther and Goethe’s?
I think Goethe and Massenet
are a far better match than, say, Goethe and Gounod. If you look at
Faust, the characters in the opera are pretty far away from Goethe,
whereas Massenet got really close to the specific style of the novel. I
doubt that any German composer would have been able to capture as many
of its colors and emotions as vividly as Massenet did.
Do you
remember when you first read the Goethe novel?
It was in
high school, I must have been 15 or 16. The story may have seemed a bit
kitschy to us then, but I remember we were fascinated that a single book
could have had such a strong impact on an entire generation, even
leading some people in similar situations to commit suicide!
Having sung Werther in several productions, how has your portrayal
developed over time?
Characters like Werther develop with
every single performance. There’s one essential thing I learned from
[director] Giorgio Strehler early in my career: never give the same
performance twice, never repeat yourself. Always try to create a new
portrayal.
This will be your fourth Met production to be seen
live in movie theaters. Do you think the transmissions have changed the
way audiences experience opera?
I think one of the reasons
the HD performances have had such an impact, compared to productions
released on DVD, is that they’re live—no corrections, just the real
thing. And instead of 4,000 people inside the Met, a few hundred
thousands all over the world get to share it. You can never transfer the
atmosphere of a live performance to a movie theater, but on the other
hand the cinema audience gets much closer to the action than you ever
would in the opera house. A good close-up can intensify the dramatic
situation as well as the musical expression.
You first sang
Werther in 2010 in Paris, opposite Sophie Koch as Charlotte. What are
you most looking forward to about reuniting with her?
I have
to admit that singing my first Werther in the center of French opera was
a bit risky. But it went very well, especially with a colleague like
Sophie. Doing a new production with her at the Met is a great
pleasure—I’m looking forward to creating a new chapter in our Werther
story!
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