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Bob’s
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Reviews — The New York Times
From the New York Times - November 17, 1909
OPERA COMIQUE
AT THE NEW THEATRE
Massenet’s “Werther” Presented
by the Forces of the Metro-
politan Opera House.
FINE ACOUSTIC QUALITIES
A Performance of Merit Though Lack-
ing in Finish - Miss Farrar as the
Heroine - Other Singers New.
Werther Edmond Clement
Albert Dink Gilly
Le Baill A. Pini-Corsi
Schmitt Leo Devaux
Johann Georges Bourgeois
Bruhlmann Walter Koch
Charlotte Geraldine Farrar
Sophie Alma Gluck
Fritz Else Michaells
Max Anna Case
Hans Lucette de Lievin
Karl Ruth Smith
Gretel Henriette Moss
Clara Anne Smith
It was a fortunate idea to utilize the new house as a place for the production of works of this smaller genre for which the Metropolitan Opera House is entirely unsuited because of its size. There might be a quarrel to be picked with the name “opera comique,” which in no accurate sense describes most of the works that are in view for performance there. It does not properly describe “Werther.” But the fact is of more importance than the name. Those who consider these things have been very aware for a quarter of a century of the unsuitableness of the Metropolitan for such works. Mr. Hammerstein’s Manhattan Opera House has given convincing proof to the eye and ear of how much more interesting and effective such operas are in a theatre of smaller, or at least different, dimensions, that will afford more intimate surroundings. The New Theatre is of a size that will increase the enjoyment of the works which it is proposed to present there.
So far as last evening’s performance showed, the much-discussed acoustic qualities of the New Theatre are exceedingly favorable for the hearing of lyric dramas of this sort. It again seemed that in some portions of the house there was not the finest resonance, yet the tones of both the singers and the orchestra were very well heard, and in a proper balance except where Mr. Tango, in the manner of too many conductors, insisted on more that a due volume of tone from the brass instruments. But matters of this sort can be adjusted if the conductors will.
Massenet’s “Werther” is an opera that gains greatly when set in such surroundings, though it had already been heard in the Metropolitan, and though its first production took place in the Imperial Opera of Vienna, one of the largest of opera houses. This production was made by a new wing of the Metropolitan’s forces, on this occasion headed by Miss Geraldine Farrar. All the others were newcomers, including the conductor, Mr. Tango.
The librettists of “Werther” have not tried to make of Goethe’s book something other than it is for their operatic purposes. There are one or two minor characters added to help with the “comic relief,” as the young lovers, Bruhlmann and Kathchen, who chatter about Klopstock. At the close Charlotte is made to visit Werther’s lodging and witness the scene of his death, while in Goethe’s novel she did not depart so far from wifely propriety, but “went on cutting bread and butter.” But an opera is an opera, and it must have an end that is recognizably an end. In other matters Goethe has been respected as far as the exigencies of the operatic librettist will allow.
Massenet’ for his part, has invited his muse - a tractable divinity - to commune in sympathy with the German master’s idyllic romance, with the sentiment, the “Schwaermerei,” the “Innigkeit,” that are to be found in it. He has created a certain atmosphere in his music, in which a gentle melancholy is the prevailing characteristic, revived on the one hand by a few merry episodes, as those of the children, the tavern, (merrier in intention than in execution,) and the suggestion of Christmas music, and on the other hand rising now and again to the height of tragic pathos. He has written charming and at times emotionally seizing music. It could hardly be maintained that this music is continually and absorbingly interesting, or that in it he has gone to the bottom of the psychological and emotional development that Goethe has unfolded in his work, any more than Gounod penetrated to the real meaning of “Faust,” though his music, or the Ambroise Thomas did to that of “Wilhelm Meister” in his opera of “Mignon.” But it is probably the best, the most musical and artistic of Massenet’s scores. There is a degree of characterization of the chief persons in the music, though it would be going too far to maintain that Massenet has assisted his librettists much in bringing before us these two figures in the truly noble and moving traits that Goethe has given them.
There are instrumental scenes that suggest potently a mood. Perhaps the most poetic moment the composer has reached is that in which he depicts the return of Werther and Charlotte from the ball in the Summer night, at the close of the first act. There is a long prelude at the beginning of the fourth act that accompanies a picture, shown on the stage of the town of Wetzlar wrapped in the snowy quiet of Christmas Eve, the music suggesting the conflict that is going on in Werther’s mind before he takes his own life. The passion is not deep nor deeply moving in this music, nor in the long monologue in the second act in which Werther bewails his loss of Charlotte. There is more power in the tragic final scene, in which Werther and Charlotte are together. Massenet in the opera has not been able to change the essential Massenet. There are the elegance and persuasive musical diction, the occasional appealing phrase, much more that is mellifluous, and sometimes an effort to strike more fire. There is the skillful, often subtle orchestration, and the dexterity in treating music for dramatic purposes, in suiting it to the effects to be gained upon the stage that are so well known as Massenet’s. These qualities make the music and the opera ingratiating, but not a work of compelling power.
In “Werther” the composer has gone further than in any other of his operas that are known here in the use of “leading motives.” He has experimented and more or less half-heartedly trifled with this method of procedure in several of his other operas. In “Werther” there is a pretty complete outfit of representative themes and in many long passages of the orchestral music they make up an important part of the texture. Yet the treatment even here is not symphonic, and these motives are used in whole or in part, in repetition and modification rather than in development.
Except Miss Farrar, whose portrayal of Charlotte was charming in voice and action, most of the principals were new to New York, and most of them made an agreeable impression. Edmond Clement was the Werther, whose voice is a tenor of refined if not of luscious quality, though it became unsteady at times when he forced it; his diction is excellent, and his action showed dramatic intelligence and a finished style. So, too, did that of Dink Gilly, baritone, who as Albert has not much of importance to do, but did it acceptably. His voice is a light and pleasing baritone, and his singing is artistic. There was charm in the fresh, light voice of Miss Alma Gluck, who took the part of Sophie with ingenuousness and grace. Mr. Pini-Corsi, remembered from by-gone years as a comic basso at the Metropolitan, was the father. Mr. Tango is a conductor of skill and dramatic temperament. He has, as has been suggested, an overfondness for emphasis of the brass. It is a company from which excellent results ought to be forthcoming in the course of the season.
The performance was not as finished as it might have been for reasons that the management so frankly confessed. Nor was the stage setting remarkable for its beauty, but its effect will be bettered when the lighting arrangements are completed.
Last updated December 29, 2006