Liberty and Responsibility in Massenet's "Werther"

ABSTRACT

Massenet’s Werther is arguably his finest opera. We looked to both Goethe’s and Massenet’s Werthers as case studies of what happens when sentiment overrides custom, and the meaning that has for personal responsibility in particular and liberty in general.

READING LIST

Conference Readings

Werther. Directed by Michael Plasson, conductor. EMI, 1997. Audio CD.

Anonymous. "Anti-Suicide (a response to Hume)." David Fieser. http://18th.eserver.org/hume-suicide.txt (November 2007).

Aristotle. The Works of Aristotle. Edited by W.D.Ross. Translated by W.D.Ross. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928.

David Hume. "On Suicide." David Fieser. http://18th.eserver.org/hume-suicide.txt (November 2007).

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. The Sorrows of Young Werther. New York: The Modern Library, 2005.

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty [4th edition]. London: Longman, Roberts, & Green Co., 1869.