WERTHER

In the organizer's words:

Charlotte's life follows a predetermined path: After the death of her mother, she takes care of the family and it is a foregone conclusion that she will marry the ambitious Albert. Then the impulsive Werther suddenly appears - and with him the possibility of a completely new life plan. Torn between her love for Werther and the expectations placed on her, Charlotte makes a momentous decision. For Werther's excessive passion is on the verge of violence.

The famous epistolary novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther", in which Goethe wrote about his own experiences, triggered a wave of suicides throughout Europe after its publication in 1774. The emotionality characteristic of the text is whipped up to even greater intensity by the music of Jules Massenet, whose "Werther" premiered in 1892. Herbert Föttinger stages the opera as a psychological chamber play about an awakening lust for life and the difficulty of breaking out of the familiar milieu.