Enveloped by strings and with its plaintive air, Charlotte’s Va! Laisse couler mes larmes in Werther is affecting enough with its outpouring of emotion too long repressed. In the hands of a detailed artist like the mezzo-soprano Elena Maximova, it fairly brings a tear to your eye and indeed conjured up pin-drop silence in the Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre. Her plummy instrument, with its characteristic lachrymose Russian quality, is wielded with such psychological insight it makes you wonder why the opera isn’t called Charlotte, Goethe be damned.

Elena Maximova in Opera Australia’s Werther. All photos © Prudence Upton

Elijah Moshinsky’s production of Massenet’s Werther updates the action of Goethe’s 1770 novella to the present day, with a distinct mid-century flavour emerging in both set and costumes. There doesn’t seem to be one device amongst chers enfants, and what phone there is has a rotary dial. This elastic sense of time has the benefit of upholding the circumstances of the drama – Charlotte’s sacrifice and Werther’s outsider status are both difficult to swallow in 2019. It’s sensitively realised by Constantine Costi (listed as co-director), who is expert at establishing Act I’s domestic scenes and the...