Massenet: Werther

“Pappano's suave way with Massenet's tale creates a perfect orchestral ambience for the central portrayals, delivered with passion and style by Alagna and Gheorghiu.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 *****

“Pappano keeps authoritative control over the temperature gauge throughout and never lets the emotions boil over into abject melodrama... in the last act [Villazon's] singing is coloured by a desperate sincerity which would melt the hardest heart.” The Telegraph, 16th March 2012 ****

“Villazón dies spectacularly well, navigating the arc from infatuation to despair to determination. Sophie Koch excels as the remorseful Charlotte...Not a dry eye in the house.” The Independent, 15th March 2012 ****

“[Villazon's] performance here — impassioned, poetic, both thrillingly extrovert and poignantly introverted — banishes most of the demons that have plagued him ...Pappano lets the Wagnerian orchestration rip in the interludes.” Sunday Times, 18th March 2012

“Villazón is back where he’s seen at his best...he throws himself right inside the torments of Werther...you’ll either be irritated or charmed by Villazón’s rather cobwebbed habit of sliding upward toward key notes...But there are also numerous times when the subtlety and beauty of his vocal effects take the breath away...Villazón’s ardour finds its match in Antonio Pappano’s conducting. He never shrinks from the luscious ache in Massenet’s music” The Times, 30th March 2012 ****

“The role of the orchestra is brilliantly realised in Antonio Pappano's performance...Sophie Koch's Charlotte persuades but Roland Villazón's hypersensitive Werther has more sob than suavity.” The Independent on Sunday, 8th April 2012 ****

“[Villazon] successfully negotiates the exposed or awkward passages. In the bigger singing of the third act...there's a touch of the old, devil-may-care Villazon...Even better is [Koch's Charlotte]...But what seems most likely to allow this recording to enter the lists of classic interpretations is Antonio Pappano's conducting...revealing the score's stresses and strains while deftly conveying its momentum.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 ****

“Villazon's style of singing Massenet is distinctly Latin...his characterization of the part, which benefits greatly from the live stage production and Pappano's breathtakingly theatrical conducting...strikes me as uniquely compelling, even if his singing is not scrupulous stylistically...[Pappano] brings both a Wagnerian sound and Tchaikovskian volatility...I will return to this set as often for Pappano as I will for Villazon.” International Record Review, May 2012

“Tingling with nervous intensity, Villazon's Werther is alive at every moment in the mind's eye...Aside from Villazon, the strongest personality in the cast is Antonio Pappano, who gets detailed playing from the orchestra. This is Massenet with an Italianate cut but his sense of drama is second to none, rising to white heat at the climax of that fateful Christmas Eve meeting.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2012

“There’s no one better [than Pappano] at glossing over the piece’s longueurs...buy this set for the white-hot orchestral playing. Brief orchestral interludes erupt with colour under Pappano and the score’s fruitier outbursts are incandescent” The Arts Desk, 26th May 2012

“[Villazon] is fresh in tone and, most important of all, his half-voice is still in marvellous shape. Few if any present-day tenors have such an array of nuance. Villazon applies this with the music and text in mind, not to show off his technically impressive diminuendo... Anyone buying his/her first Werther who chooses the present one will, I’m convinced, fall in love with both the work and the artists.” Musicweb International, August 2012

“the pacing of each tableau vivant is handled so superbly by Sir Colin that there is not a single moment of longueur...The casting polarizes this Werther and this Charlotte. Jose Carreras is very much a Werther of action rather than of dream, of impetuous self-destruction rather than of brooding lyricism...von Stade's performance can hardly be faulted. Her voice is the very incarnation of Charlotte's essential simplicity of character” Gramophone Magazine, February 1987

“[Kraus] enters into the soul of the character” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 *****

“Stylishly Francophone, suavely conducted by Antonio Pappano, this is the Werther to have.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010

“Pappano is subtle as well as powerful, using rubato idiomatically and with refinement to heighten the drama and point the moments of climax.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition