Les larmes qu'on ne pleure pas

WERTHER
Drame lyrique en 4 actes et 5 tableaux
Composer: Jules Massenet (1842–1912)
Libretto : Edouard Blau, Paul Milliet et Georges Hartmann, after Goethe’s ‘Die Leiden des jungen Werthers’ (1774)
First performance: Imperial Theatre Hofoper, Vienna, 16 February 1892 (in German).
First performance in France: Théatre Lyrique, Paris, 16 January 1893

SETTING: Wetzlar, near Frankfurt, July–December 178–.

PLOT: Werther, a young poet, loves Charlotte, but she promised her dying mother that she will marry Albert. Werther leaves in despair. He returns and tries to persuade Charlotte to leave her husband. The young woman heroically resists and Werther shoots himself. Charlotte finds him dying, and declares her love.

Air des Larmes : ‘Les larmes qu’on ne pleure pas’
Charlotte confesses her sorrow to her sister Sophie.

Charlotte, fille du Bailli, 20 ans / the Bailiff’s daughter, 20 years old (mezzo-soprano): Ninon Vallin

Conductor: Elie Cohen
Paris Chorus & Orchestra
Paris, January 1931