DVD. Run time: 101 mins. Jules Massanet's operatic adaptation of Goethe's Die Leiden Des Jungen Werthers has been brought to the screen by noted Czech director Petr Weigl. Werther is a man desperately in love with Charlotte, who is engaged to marry his close friend Albert. Resigned to his fate, Werther moves away and begins a correspondance with Charlotte, in which he explains his feelings for her. Charlotte is moved by the passion of Werther's letters, and she finds herself struggling to reconcile her newly awakened feelings for Werther with her duties to her husband Albert. Brigitte Fassbaender leads Werther's fine cast as Charlotte. Mark Deming, Rovi
Jules Massenet's lyrical opera is transformed into a superb film production by Petr Weigl, shot on location in Prague, with music conducted by Libor Pesek. First produced by the Vienna Opera in February 1892, "Werther" rapidly confirmed Massenet's position on the French opera scene and achieved enormous popularity outside France, notably in Italy, America and England. The tragic story tells of Werther's intense passion for Charlotte, who has married his best friend, Albert, fulfilling a pledge to her now deceased mother. But Werther's letters of love bring Charlotte to his side when he promises to take his own life.
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