When love makes life impossible.

Werther, a mistrusted outsider, is passionately in love with Charlotte, but she has promised her dying mother that she will marry another man. Torn between love and duty, Charlotte has no choice but to keep her vow. Heartbroken, Werther’s sorrow overwhelms him, and a first kiss from Charlotte also proves to be his last.

Massenet's music transforms Goethe's original novel of unrequited love into an intensely touching operatic masterpiece. With soaring melodies and rich orchestration, his glorious music is full of tenderness, passion and full-blooded emotion.

With one of the world’s great mezzo-sopranos, Alice Coote, as Charlotte and Opera North favourite Paul Nilon as Werther, full justice will be done to this, one of the supreme achievements of French Romantic opera.

Sung in French with English titles.