On Friday, 30th May, the stage of the Historical Building of the National Theatre Košice will once again welcome the renewed premiere of WERTHER, the famous literary tale of tragic love set to music by French composer Jules Massenet. The production is directed by the Austria-based German director Alexander Wiegold, with a new musical interpretation by guest Dutch conductor Michael Engelbrecht.
Massenet’s music powerfully expresses the ecstasy of romantic intoxication and the hopeless sorrow of unfulfilled desire. The character of Charlotte, inspired by one of Goethe’s youthful loves, takes centre stage. This charming and wise young woman sacrifices her love for Werther to remain faithful to her husband; she dares to reveal her true feelings only when it is already too late.
"I am very much looking forward to the new musical interpretation of Werther under the baton of Michael Engelbrecht, featuring the exceptional mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova as Charlotte for the audience in Košice. We managed to find a few free days in her busy schedule for a guest appearance in Košice, between her performances in Zurich and the Vienna State Opera, where she will star this June in The Queen of Spades alongside Anna Netrebko in a production by Vera Nemirova. Together with Peter Berger, the outstanding Slovak tenor, and other soloists, they created an unforgettable premiere night three years ago, an evening full of passion, emotion, love, and drama," said Opera Director Roland Khern Tóth.
“Werther is a sensitive rebel, a restless seeker of life’s meaning. He radically questions a world built on economic calculation and sees love as a creative, liberating, and meaningful force. ‘Pourquoi me réveiller?’ – ‘Why awaken me?’ – as sung in the immortal aria – when imagination can create a far more beautiful world than our narrow-minded view of nature allows. Werther’s dreamlike images and visions shatter the structured world of everyday life and turn Charlotte’s and her family’s lives upside down. The characters – especially Charlotte – struggle less against social conventions and more against their own desires and fear of the abyss of passion. Werther’s unfulfilled longing grows into a nightmare of madness from which he ultimately cannot escape,” said director Alexander Wiegold before the Košice premiere of the opera in October 2021.
The renewed premiere will be conducted by acclaimed Dutch conductor Michael Engelbrecht. In 2021, he won first prize with the State Opera of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, at the Béla Bartók / Blue Danube International Conducting Competition. The competition programme consisted of four full-lenght operas – Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Bizet’s Carmen, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. He also won first prize at the Budapest International Masterclass & Competition for Orchestral Conducting, where the jury included musicians from the MÁV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest. In 2023, he was awarded the “Mengelberg Conducting Prize” by the Swiss Willem Mengelberg Stiftung for exceptional conducting talent. He leads his own symphony orchestra and is recognized as a guest conductor in Europe as well as in China and Shanghai. In the 2022/2023 season, he was already introduced to the Košice audience as a guest conductor in one of the performances of Verdi’s Nabucco.
The renewed premiere will also feature an outstanding solo cast. In the title role of Werther, Košice native and guest tenor Peter Berger will once again take the stage. The internationally acclaimed Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova returns as Charlotte. The role of Sophie will be performed by soprano Aneta Hollá, and Albert will be portrayed by Marián Lukáč from the Košice ensemble. Other roles will be performed by ensemble members Marek Gurbaľ, Maksym Kutsenko, László Havasi, Filip Kostrub, and Silvia Ondočko.
