One of the opera world's finest and best loved Romantic masterpieces, is Charles Gounod's musical interpreting of the famous Faust legend. The opera's libretto is taken directly from the play by Carre, "Faust Et Marguerite", but of course that in itself is based on the dramatic writings of Goethe.
This incredible production from the combined forces of The Royal Opera House in London has to simply be the best production of Faust I have ever seen. Sumptuous, lascivious, thoughful, "gothic", and precise, with great attention to detail and perfectionism.
The story concerns an old doctor called Faust, who sells his soul to the devil in order to be young again and lust after the young maidens he so yearns for. Once young he sees a young, but very pious and religious maid Marguerite with whom he falls in love. The devil arranged that they fall in love and she spurns the interest of her young suitor in Faust's favour. Marguerite's brother returns home from the revolution, only to find his sister heavily pregnant but with relationships between her and Faust not going as well as they really should. Of course, things are not going to end well, and of course they don't. Who's souls shall be saved, and at what cost.
In this very traditional, lavish and faithful production the role of Faust was performed with soaring lyric beauty by Michael Fabiano. ("Salut, Demeure chaste et pure" was honeyed melon!). Playing opposite him as Mephistophele was the incredibly talented Erwin Schrott. They had a wonderful chemistry on stage together and their voices blended superbly. Irina Lungu played the role of Marguerite with great skill, with the other female protagonist, known as a "breeches role" as it is a role which traditionally flips gender was Marta Fontanal-Simmons as Marguerite's young suitor, Siebel. And finally among the top tier, Valentin, Marguerite's brother, played with panache by Stephane Degout. Smaller cameo roles, as well as the chorus were all excellent too. In fact, the chorus in this production gave the finest rendition of "Gloire Immortelle" that I think I've ever heard.
Add to this the incredibly detailed, clever, and eye-catching sets, traditional styled costumed, music played by the Royal Opera's own orchestra and sounding incredible; a ballet (often cut from the opera) using dancers from the Royal Ballet, and absolutely spot-on direction, then this is one opera that no-one should miss. Hugely traditional and deferential to the intents of the composers and time of composing, with a few little twists and directorial ideas which kept the show fresh and alive and worked superbly.
If I had to nit-pick and be very pernickerty, then perhaps Fabiano's portrayal of the old Faust was a little too much of a caricature with a too-obvious palsy; whilst a few times during the opera, Schrott's final "e" vowel was sounded in the Italian way and not as the French style schwa. However, if these are the only things which I was able to pick up on, then this is indeed a truly magnificent production and one that I would have loved to have seen live.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 18/7/20
No comments:
Post a Comment