E:lucy.hall@rwcmd.ac.uk

Werther loves Charlotte, but she promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. After the marriage Charlotte suggests that Werther should travel – but not forget her. Charlotte, unhappily married, has fallen in love with Werther through his letters. He returns unexpectedly; Charlotte sends him away. Werther shoots himself and dies in Charlotte’s arms.

‘Werther comes in a new production by Robert Chevara, designed by Lucy Hall. Paring props and stage business to the essentials has resulted in a direct, unfussy production that serves the opera well. Washing on a line sets the domestic tone of the first act in the mayor’s garden, while the drawing room from the claustrophobic third act is transformed with a few strokes of a Biedermeier interior. Paule Constable’s heavily shadowed lighting is superb here, as it is indeed throughout the show. Costumes of the period are well designed’.

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Barry Millington, ​Evening Standard