Based on Goethe’s best-selling The Sorrows of Young Werther, Jules Massenet’s celebrated opera has captivated audiences since its debut in 1892. Massenet’s emotion-filled melodies, touching solos, and gorgeous orchestral textures combine to create a deeply satisfying musical experience. On the surface, Werther is a simple, almost commonplace story of love and death, but the composer’s insights in the human psyche launch this opera into an emotional rollercoaster of grand passions, great dilemmas, and wistful longing.

This ravishing opera depicts the joys and suffering of the quintessential romantic, Werther, whose ardent passion for Charlotte is thwarted by a sacred vow and her marriage to another man. Werther’s outpourings of poetry and Charlotte’s spiritual insecurities move her tormented heart to compassion and finally to an expression of love, but by then, tragically, Werther has succumbed to his self-destructive melancholy.
 

11/17, 11/18, 11/20, 11/29, 12/1, 12/2 performances
 

11/23, 11/25 performances

Casting**
 

The Opera San José Orchestra, Chorus and Supers

**Casting subject to change without notice.

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