Werther, Royal Opera House review ★★★★★

The walls close in on a forbidden love in Jules Massenet’s Werther at the Royal Opera House, but nothing could be more expansive than the glorious singing of Aigul Akhmetshina as Charlotte, torn between passion and duty.

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann may be the big name on the bill, singing the title role, a poet who longs for Charlotte. But it was Akhmetshina who brought the house down on first night, and whom Kaufmann literally swept off her feet, swinging her up in the air for the curtain call.

This exciting voice has blossomed at Covent Garden ever since she joined its prestigious Jette Parker scheme in 2017. She was a knockout in The Barber of Seville in February, and is becoming the world’s go-to Carmen, a role she first sang in London. Her creamy, rounded voice has character as well as gleam. After Werther she sings with ENO in 7 Deaths of Maria Callas (3-11 Nov) and returns to Covent Garden – as Carmen (5 April to 31 May 2024).

But for now, she is Charlotte, promised to Albert, and so fulfilling her mother’s dying wish, but in love with Werther, who has returned to her German village just before the ceremony. In the hinterland of this romance are the pastor’s golden wedding anniversary and an unhappy lover’s seven-year wait for marriage. Dutiful Charlotte will not be swayed, but Werther has asked to borrow Albert’s pistols…

Massenet was a prolific composer, but this is the opera for which he is remembered. It was an immediate hit in 1892. Benoît Jacqot’s 2004 Royal Opera production revived by Geneviève Dufour is beautifully and atmospherically lit by Charles Edwards who also designed the set, a rare combining of two complementary disciplines. As a result, the light levels and pockets are part of the space or room, not adjuncts. There are walls everywhere. When Charlotte and Werther struggle emotionally and physically it is in an austere room in the style of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi.

And what a struggle it is. Floored by passion, they almost roll into the pit, tumbling into the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. There director of music Antonio Pappano brings to this large-scale score all the surge and layering of the Italian verismo (‘real life’) operas in which he always excels.

Pappano goes to the London Symphony Orchestra next year where there will be even more scope to mix all the instrumental colours that he brings to this reading. Massenet’s score is in itself quite symphonic, with orchestral interludes and crashing waves of sound.

As for Kaufmann, well, he looks every inch the romantic poet, and the chemistry with Akhmetshina would power the National Grid, but the voice is pitted, unhappy at the top and thinner, even in the safer zones. A handful of times he steps downstage to give it some welly, but the audience, still warm in its appreciation, know he has sung better than this.

Making her Covent Garden debut is soprano Sarah Gilford as Charlotte’s younger sister Sophie, who helps her to raise the many younger siblings. Gilford won the Song Prize in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. (The 2023 prize has just gone to South Korean tenor Sung Kim. Expect to hear more of him.) Gilford's recent work in Germany pays off in a lyrical and spirited performance that is sure to lead to her return.

Gordon Bintner’s Albert is not the traditional no-hoper husband: he is attentive and easy on the eye, not a dolt nor a bore nor a bully. Charlotte simply loves Werther more, with all her heart.

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Werther is sung in French with English surtitles. Further performances are on 23, 28 June; 1, 4 July. It is a co-production with Opéra National de Paris