The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025-26 season of Saturday matinee broadcasts continues on February 7 with the first in this year's Artist's Choice series — in which current Met stars pay homage to operatic luminaries of the past.
The opening broadcast of the series was chosen by tenor Lawrence Brownlee in honor of Alfredo Kraus: Massenet’s "Werther."
This 1979 Met performance showcases the great Spanish tenor in his signature role, playing the sensitive young poet undone by an impossible love. French soprano Régine Crespin stars opposite him as Charlotte, who's dutifully married but hopelessly drawn to Werther. The cast also features the young Kathleen Battle as Charlotte's sister Sophie and Lenus Carlson as Albert, with Richard Bonynge conducting Massenet’s heartbreaking score.
Listen to the broadcast of "Werther" on Classical IPR at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 7, 2026.
From the Met: "The conflict between expression and repression that forms the essence of the novel is depicted brilliantly in Massenet's score. The composer's gift for elegant melody is immediately apparent, but it's the deployment and placement of these melodies that raise the opera to its impressive dramatic level. The cascade of sound in the brief orchestral passages, most notably the opening bars of the prelude and the intermezzo between Acts III and IV, are gripping depictions of emotion."
Read the synopsis from the Metropolitan Opera.
Composer: Jules Massenet
Libretto: Georges Hartmann, Édouard Blau and Paul Milliet
CAST
Werther: Alfredo Kraus
Charlotte: Régine Crespin
Sophie: Kathleen Battle
Albert: Lenus Carlson
