““A wonder of a Werther... more daunting than an opera about the hyperbolic nature of unreciprocated love, is to get the audience to suspend disbelief and buy it. Florida Grand Opera accomplished just that on Saturday, April 27 at Miami’s Arsht Center with its new production of Massenet’s tragic opera. When the performers, text, score, orchestra and creative team are all top-shelf and brought together to render a single production, you are going to be included in one magical night of opera. This is what happened on the opening night of FGO’s production of Werther... It is a difficult assignment to direct characters who are constantly in a heightened state of emotion. That line between performer’s becoming melodramatic rather than believable can easily get fuzzy. Stage director Lawrence Edelson skillfully kept his players from being overwrought, effectively keeping them honest. The taking of hands, the turning-aways, the conflicted hesitations, rang true. The staging of several couples dancing (including the newly acquainted Werther and Charlotte) was simple, elegant and tasteful... This opera is about character not spectacle. Feelings were expressed at all times. Tender moments, speaking substance. Edelson’s direction was measured with lovely pacing, nothing rushed, so the romance could build from innocence to something possibly profound. He drew natural reactions out of his performers, the only way to sell this story as believable with emotions in such a consistently heightened state... It is refreshing to recognize how Massenet scored the opera as a vehicle for a competent director to nurture honest relationships and feelings unforced by the constraints of time... Applause doesn’t lie. This production rang true.”

- Miami ARTzine

”...this production is new, and a creation from the ground up. While keeping the story firmly planted in the German countryside, the simple, abstract set by Michael Baumgarten is vast but sparse, giving a sense of the emotional loneliness that early on begins to bubble up in the characters. A one-dimensional, overgrown tree is at the center of the set. Letters hang from the branches instead of leaves. In winter, the tree has lost its “leaves,” and the letters are scattered on the ground.The scenic design’s simplicity leaves room for attention to the singers. . . Lawrence Edelson’s direction aligns with the set as he unfolds the show like the changing of the seasons, from Massenet’s sunny Act 1 to its sorrowful finale. Joseph Mechavich brings out the French Romantic’s lilting emphasis on strings and woodwinds in the opening strains and throughout the first act, and pushes his orchestra to full throttle for the tumultuous, dark and dissonant third and fourth acts. Onstage, the tug of war between duty and desire continues to build, while in the orchestra pit, the music heightens the tension.For an opera to run on all cylinders, all the elements must be in sync, from the direction to the singers and orchestra. Florida Grand Opera’s “Werther” has this and more, down to the letter.”

- Miami Herald

”The traditional production, directed by Lawrence Edelson, made no apologies for the romantic melodrama, portraying the action and characters realistically. Magical images of silhouetted lovers in the moonlight in the first act and Werther’s final meeting with Charlotte and death amid falling snow on Christmas Eve lit up the stage... The unit set by Michael Baumgarten wonderfully encapsulated the village green and the homes of the Baliff, and Charlotte and Albert with the addition of a tree, windows and a pathway providing just the right sense of ambience. Baumgarten’s lighting set the tone of the changing seasons from the brightness of summer to the chill of winter, matching the score’s emotional roller coaster. Howard Tsvi Kaplan’s handsome, multi-hued costumes illuminated the stage pictures....The first-night audience’s ovation at the opera’s conclusion was unusually long and enthusiastic...”

- South Florida Classical Review

”Florida Grand Opera’s brand-new production, directed by Lawrence Edelson in his FGO debut, took the literary origins of the opera to heart. Set design by Michael Baumgarten saw the characters gliding up and down a pair of inclines, decorated with illegible yet elegant lines of handwriting – Goethe’s, perhaps? – as though leaping to life from the pages of an open book. Baumgarten’s lighting design placed characters’ movements in stark silhouette against a minimalistic coloured backdrop, while a large, gnarled tree loomed above every scene, its leaves replaced by gossamer sheets of paper. The effect was darkly whimsical and visually captivating, allowing the drama to unravel within a framework of fiction – well-suited to the opera’s poetic exaggerations and high-flying emotions.”

- Schmopera

”The Florida Grand Opera (FGO)’s production of Werther at the Arsht Center in Miami displayed a touching level of humanity and an ethereal commitment to desire and to a musical form that pays tribute to the stakes of unrequited love. From the outset of the four-act opera... the audience is treated with a production that displays a rare level of romantic melancholy... The FGO’s stylishly pastel-like lighting and minimalist set design makes this production a very contemporary one, complete with the requisite amount of moody and breezy stage effects.... What the Florida Grand Opera has achieved with this production of Massenet’s gem beckons many questions and provides inspirations for opera lovers. To intertwine this old tale into a contemporary sensibility with such intricate lighting and a loving interpretation of the musical composition represents an achievement of the most ambitious degree.”

- The Sophia News”