Werther (Colin Davis recording)
Werther (Colin Davis recording)
This is a 130‑minute studio recording of Jules Massenet’s opera Werther. It features José Carreras as Werther, Frederica von Stade as Charlotte, Sir Thomas Allen as Albert, Isobel Buchanan as Sophie, and Robert Lloyd as the Bailiff, with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis. It was released by Philips in 1981 and recorded in February 1980 in London, after Covent Garden staged performances in January 1980.
The Covent Garden staging, a co‑production with English National Opera, was directed by John Copley with Stefanos Lazaridis designing the sets and Michael Stennett the costumes. The album uses the same principal singers as the stage production, except that in the theatre Albert and Schmidt were played by different performers ( Summers and Dobson).
The recording was made using analogue technology. The cover photo, by Mike Evans, shows Carreras and von Stade on stage during the opera’s final act.
Reception highlights
- Alan Blyth (Gramophone, 1981): Praised most of Davis’s principal soloists. Carreras gives a rich, dramatic Werther; Lloyd’s Bailiff is strong; Allen’s Albert is convincing; von Stade is sensitive but lacks some palette of colors for Charlotte. Davis reveals the score’s subtleties and creates good momentum, and the recording quality is solid.
- George Jellinek (Stereo Review, 1982): von Stade is pleasant to hear but a bit cool; Buchanan is charming as Sophie; Carreras has a mix of strengths and weaknesses; Allen is excellent. The orchestra plays with energy, and Davis’s pacing suits the drama, though Prêtre’s earlier recording with Gedda and de los Angeles is harder to beat.
- Hilary Finch (Gramophone, 1987): von Stade’s technique is flawless, but her Charlotte lacks dramatic shading. The other principals are praised, and the Covent Garden orchestra sounds lively under Davis.
- Richard Fairman (Gramophone, 2000): Considered one of the best modern recommendations for Werther, thanks to a balanced approach to emotion and restraint, with Davis’s conducting praised.
- The album won the 1982 Gramophone Award for Engineering and Production, noted for its convincing studio-to-theatre atmosphere and good balance.
Formats and reissues
- 1981: Released as a set of three LPs (6769 051) and two cassettes (7654 051), with booklets of texts and notes.
- 1987: Reissued as a double CD (416 654–2) with a 176‑page booklet containing libretti, synopses in English, French, German and Italian, and notes by various authors, plus photographs by Mike Evans.
- Later reissues include a 2004 Gramophone Awards Collection edition, a 2006 Decca Originals edition, and a 2012 Decca Opera Company edition.
About the opera
Werther is Massenet’s four‑act drame lyrique, based on Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther. The music blends French lyric style with touches of Wagnerian and Berlioz influences and remains one of Massenet’s most popular works.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:04 (CET).