Tbilisi State Opera to bring Massenet classic ‘Werther’ back to stage
A staging team has been working on a new premiere of ‘Werther’ in Tbilisi. Image: Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre.
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The opera venue of Georgia’s capital city will mark the Christmas season by bringing Jules Massenet’s classic opera Werther by to its stage for the first time in over 75 years.
Staging groups comprised of local and foreign professionals have been working on a new premiere of the dramatic staging at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre, with the first of the shows set to launch on December 22.
Featuring soloists and the theatre choir, the production will be the result of the work of staging director Joseph Franconi Lee and staging conductor Zaza Azmaiparashvili.
A set design by Emmanuelle Favre, costumes by Ester Martin and lighting design by Stefano Gorreri will contribute to the celebratory mood of the restored opera.
Werther will be presented in a five-show bill between December 22-30.
Based on the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the opera’s events are based on a romantic triangle story set in the 1780s.
The plot unfolds in four acts centred around protagonists Werther, Charlotte and Albert, and ends with a Christmas carol.
Werther first premiered at the Hofoper venue in Vienna in 1892, where it was performed in German, before being performed in French in Geneva later the same year.
While not immediately successful, the opera gradually became a regular piece in the repertoires of many world famous venues.
The Tbilisi opera held its first performance of Werther in 1904 and kept the staging in its repertoire until the early 1940s. The last show was held in 1942.