The remarkable master of French lyric opera Jules Massenet created 34 operas. Werther is the 18^th of them, written to a libretto based on Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. A bestseller, it captivated the minds of young people across Europe. More than a century after its publication, in 1885-87 Massenet composed the musical version of the story of Werther’s hopeless love for Charlotte, who had married somebody else. The opera, full of sensual ardor and poetic beauty, immediately won over audiences at its premiere at the Imperial Theatre Hofoper in Vienna on 16 February 1892 (performed in a German version translated by Max Kalbeck). Nine months later, in the original French, it was presented first in Geneva, then in Paris.