Massenet’s opera is based on Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, a seminal work in the Sturm und Drang movement which swept Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. First performed in Vienna in 1892, Werther is arguably Massenet’s finest opera. The score is highly economical, keeping the drama moving throughout with effective musical characterisation. It is packed with memorable tunes and is brilliantly orchestrated. The plot concerns the ill-fated love of the poet Werther for Charlotte, who is already engaged to Albert. Charlotte realises that she feels for him and when her fiancé senses this, he willingly lends his pistols to Werther, who, in despair, shoots himself. Perhaps the most famous number from the opera is Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle du printemps from Act IІI, favourite aria for tenors throughout the twentieth century.