Werther de Jules Massenet: un "drame lyrique" francais ou germanique? Sources et analyse des motifs recurrents

Abstract

Since the very day of its creation, Werther has been considered as a wagnerian work. This judgement, still prevailing today, is based on musical parameters (generic title, recurring themes or motives, absence of choir, continuous scenes) but also on the hardly known set of themes which recalls the wagnerian thematic guides that Massenet used twice. Nevertheless, Massenet's thematic art, founded on three categories of motives that he exploits in many ways, remains quite unique, reflecting a fundamental composing principle: the musical language must be adapted itself to the topic and its time frame. As a matter of fact, the structure of Werther is inspired by Mehul's opera-comique, in which recurring themes already played an important part, whilst the tones associated to the characters refer to the German romantic theorists of Goethe's times (Hand, Schilling) who associated tones with personality features. The generic title of the opera (« drame lyrique ») hence refers not to Wagner, but to the 18th century, particularly in fashion during the Troisieme Republique first period. But Massenet does not confine himself to the limits of these models. Werther also contains references to the Italian dramatic art, which inspired him for the closed vocal forms (aria or duett) and in his assigning a dominating part to the second interval like Verdi in Macbeth. Very common in France, this synthesis of different construction principles follow Victor Cousin's philosophical doctrine -Eclecticism - a search for Truth in different thinking systems, which had a long lasting influence in the 19th century. When Massenet confesses to be seeking a « fusion harmonique » of the Italian and German systems, the composer makes this philosophy his own: consequently, despite its obvious German references, Werther cannot be considered as a wagnerian work and must be viewed as a mirror of the esthetics prevailing in France until the 1880's.