Damn hard opera to stage too
Written: Sep 09 '06 (Updated Nov 13 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful music beautifully performed. Interesting visuals.
Cons: Abstract... very abstract. Like Picasso's painting. You get it or you don't.
The Bottom Line: If you like French opera, a must buy. If you just like opera, worth trying. Great music.
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| smorg's Full Review: Damnation of Faust |
O... surely you've read Goethe's 'Faust' You know... the naive doctor who sold his soul to the devil in order to get help getting the girl he wanted? Knowing that story won’t necessarily enable you to follow or understand Alex Ollé’s and Carlos Padrissa’s staging of Hector Berlioz’s opera in this August 25th, 1999 performance at the Salzburg Summer Festival, however.
This 1893 opera (actually Berlioz calls it a Musical Legend, which is probably a better catagorization) is usually given in a concert setting because it's hard to stage. What with different scenes to be changed quickly with music that doesn't accommodate that. Unlike the Italian operas, this is a late French romantic one, so the arias just flow right into other things from start to finish. This staging has turned the story ‘inward’, making it into Faust’s tale of self-discovery. Méphistophélès is his dark side, while Marguerite is his feminine sense of purity and naivité. The whole opera takes place during the course of a solar eclipse, when Faust’s suicide attempt by plunging into the smelter’s furnace eases us into the interior of his mind.
This was staged at the Felsenreitschule and basically use the original building (if you've seen the film The Sound of Music, it's the building that the von Trapps sing on during the singing competition when they make their get away) with this flimsy 4 stories cylinder in the middle of the large stage. The cylinder is enclosed in this white material that images (real and animated) are projected onto to quite arresting visual effects especially during the Song of the Rat and the Song of the fleas. I had quite a rough time making sense of things on the first go watching the thing, but it is interesting nonetheless. It is essential that you read the booklet that comes with the DVD before watching this.
For a video clip of Marguerite's Act II 'D'Amour, l'ardente flamme', go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oqtNw1bC0Q
The singing is wonderful especially by the Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Vesselina Kasarova's Marguerite and the under-appreciated American bass Willard White's Méphistophélè. American tenor Paul Groves plays Faust effectively, though with some iffy singing in the high passages. I like him here better than as Belmonte in the Salzburg Festival's 'Abduction from the Seraglio' the year before, however. I think his voice fit the French music well and his Faust progresses convincingly from early naïve enthusiasm to a more complete and flawed man in the end. I love Kasarova's mesmerizing dark mezzo voice for Marguerite. She has this very sexy way of doing her very chesty 'Ah ' that would melt an ice burg faster than global warming would (maybe that's why she hasn't been invited to sing in Iceland yet). Fittingly, her first 'Ah ' at the end of 'Autrefois un roi de Thulé' melts the projected image of a grail on the cylinder’s surface.
Faust first appears wearing all white clothes and as he falls deeper and deeper under Méphistophélès’ influence he keeps exchanging white article of clothing for black one until he matches Méphistophélès’ all black uniform. Marguerite doesn't show up until the 2nd act... and wears this shiny all black gown the whole time (Gosh I didn't know this character's supposed to be evil from start to finish ).
Anyhow... most of the actions takes place in the cylinder. Watching Kasarova leaning out from the 3rd story of that moving flimsy cylinder during her long aria with nothing but 2 slinky cables as barrier is rather unsettling for me. Daring Bulgarian Her acting seems a bit exaggerated on close up shots, but then I guess that's required to be seen from inside that cylinder since real audience didn't have the luxury of close ups. White's Méphistophélè is quite slick and rather much hipper than Grove's Faust. There are loads of extra all around to keep it visually quite busy. I'm still figuring out much of the symbolisms myself. Heck... it's just something to rest your eyes on while listening to the music, really.
Maestro Sylvain Cambreling directs the Staatskapelle Berlin at a brisk pace (except for Marquerite's long aria D'Amour l'ardente flamme which he must really like since he is in no hurry to finish the thing...even when it lasts some 9 minutes ). It's a very pictorially French sounding take... dunno how to express it better than that. Sorry.
Anyhow, after watching this I think I'll explore more of Berlioz's music. This DVD won the Grammophone award for Performance of the Year when it came out, and I would give it that if only for the musical performance. The work just isn't very accommodating for staging.
1 Region ‘0’ DVD. Running time: 146 minutes. Sung in French with subtitle in: English, Japanese.
Other opera by Hector Berlioz:
Les Troyens
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
smorg
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Member: Smorg
Location: Southern California, USA
Reviews written: 208
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