“WERTHER : Massenet
Original Air Date: 01/23/1999
Cast: Runnicles; Hampson, Graham, Evans, Robertson
Media: MOD Audio SID.18220744 Tags: Archive; 2018
I’m sorry I didn’t attend this revival with the title role moving to baritone hands (in Massenet’s own transposition) (still too high for Domingo????), but this broadcast catches Susan Graham in one of her very best afternoons.
This is the baritone version Massenet wrote for Battistini. I didn’t see it in the theatre and just over the airwaves, it didn’t work for me. It however catches Susan Graham in particularly splendid voice.
This is a novelty for if there were ever a tenor opera it is Werther, but the
composer did arrange for baritone for Battistini. Hampson is very earnest, but I want the tenor colorations. This is one of Graham’s best Met outings.”