Werther

Werther
drame lyrique by Jules Massenet
Grasset poster for 1893 French premiere of Werther
Librettist
LanguageFrench
Based onDie Leiden des jungen Werther
by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Premiere
16 February 1892 (1892-02-16)
Hofoper, Vienna (in German)

Werther is an opera (drame lyrique) in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann (who used the pseudonym Henri Grémont). It is loosely based on Goethe's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, which was based both on fact and on Goethe's own early life. Earlier examples of operas using the story were made by Kreutzer (1792) and Pucitta (1802).[1]

  1. ^ Milnes R. Werther. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.