Gounod's Faust
A warning / disclaimer - unlike most, when I write a review I'm mostly reviewing the opera itself, not the production or the singing (although about this one, I touch on it at the end). These reviews for me are ways to create a ranking of my favorite operas and I try to concentrate on the strenghts and weaknesses of the music (score, voice) and the theatricality of the scenes, and to curb myself from overestimating the opera if the production is good, or underestimating it if it is not (hard to do because I'm human, but I try). So, I'm not exactly reviewing this DVD, but rather trying to review Gounod's Faust.
I offer no guaranties about the names of the arias I write down when I'm reviewing from a DVD that lacks its insert (as is the case today - it's a Netflix rental). I just try to copy them down as I get them, and sometimes I don't get them right and the "official" name of the aria is different.
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1985 production from the Vienna State Opera. Erich Binder conducts. Ken Russell (!) directs (and makes a mess).
Francisco Araiza is Faust, Ruggero Raimondi is the Devil, and Gabriela Benackova is Marguerite.
Starting soon.
Overture - ominous music to start with. Getting more melodious now. Still, so-so. Too long. B-
Rien! En vain j'interroge - Faust's first arioso/recitatif mix. I don't care for it very much. B-
Le ciel pallît - more forceful and haunting than the preceding one - better. Faust prepares himself to commit suicide. Two choruses are heard - girls, harvesters, good people but Faust is not moved. A good scene. B+
Faust curses God. Vocal lines and orchestration are both sort of overdramatic and the orchestration feels conventional. B-
Me voici - d'où vient ta surprise? The Devil comes up.
Faust asks for la jeunesse - À moi les plaisirs. The devil replies, Fort bien! The dialogue continues and is interesting. B+, spinning, merry rhythm and melodie, the best part so far.
End of Act I. B- overall.
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Act II brings up six choruses, supposed to be lively and joyful. The first one is a drinking song, not very good. the ones that follow are not any better. The orchestration is pallid. C+. Then at the end they merge and it gets a little better. B-. This doesn't seem to be Gounod's forte. I've seen much better.
O sainte médaille - a solo by a soldier. Very short. Started well but then ended abruptly. Not enough for a score.
Avant de quitter ces lieux - this is above what we've had so far but nothing extraordinary. B+
Another drinking song, a little better than the first one, with some drôle d'histoires told by members of the crowd. The devil comes to interact with people. B
Le veau d'or - the first really good piece. A
Mephistopheles makes a mess in the plaza - rather uninteresting scene. C+
De l'enfer qui vient - pretty good piece. B+
Ainsi que la brise legère - pleasant waltz. Not bad at all. A-
Ne permettez vous pas la belle demoiselle - a lyric duet. It's an OK one. B
the waltz comes back and ends the act.
Overall - B+
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Act III
Interesting prelude. B+
Faites-lui mes aveux - OK. B
Quel trouble unconnu me penètre - Salut, demeure chaste et pure - OK, now we're in business, finally a really good piece. A+. It was about time.
Il était un roi de Thulé - charming. B+. However it spots the plot dead on its track, and is rather useless.
Ah! je ris de me voir - The Jewell Song. Lovely, A+
Seigneur Dieu, que vois-je - it starts a good stretch of melodious arioso, and some ensembles in rapid succession.
It leads to a nice quartet: Je ne vous crois pas. A
Il était temps - Mephisto sings his big aria, very impressive, with lots of gravitas. A
Now it's time for a long love duet between Faust and Marguerite in various parts:
Laisse-moi, laisse moi contempler ton visage. He sings, then she sings. Romantic, melodious piece. A. Followed by I'l m'aime, I'l m'aime pas. B.
Then Ô nuit d'amour! Cel radieux! Big time melody, rolling, enticing, serenade style. A+, I like it a lot. Partez, partez, oui, partez vite! Marguerite has a pang of guilt and pushes Faust away. Overdramatic let down. B-.
Divine pureté! comes to close the act. Again, the melody soars, and we get back to A territory, with a nice tune to end it after Mephisto comes back, and Faust and Margueritte exchange some more passionate lines, her back to her room and singing with the window open. Effective. A
This act is far superior to the first two. I give it an A overall. The opera is getting progressively better: from B- to B+ to A. Looking forward to the last two acts to see what the global score will be.
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Act IV
Elles ne sont plus la - it's pungent, but somehow rubs me the wrong way, seems too lachrimose. I'm not impressed. B-. I'm not very much into this sort of thing (this is one of the reasons I don't care much for Madama Butterfly).
Siébel comes in, it all continues in the same style. I still don't like it. There is something missing from this version - according to my synopsis, we're supposed to get a Mephisto aria her, and a pray by Marguerite. Nothing like this in this version.
A march comes in. Deposons nos armes. A bunch of people arrive. By now the entire pace of this thing is pretty much shot. Gounod was unable to maintain what he had achieved in Act III.
But then, Gounod recovers. Next is Gloire Immortelle - pretty good march. A-.
This followed by Vous qui faites l'endormie, by Mephisto. Rather clichéd piece, punctuated by diabolic laughter. B-. The pace continues to suffer and the whole thing feels forced.
Valentin, Faust, and Mephisto get to a trio. Redouble, O Dieu puissant. Again, rather mondaine stuff. B
Lame sword fight ensues, Valentin gets killed. Or dying. As usual, in opera, people sing after they are poisoned, stabbed, or pierced by sword. What he sings is not that enticing, as he keeps insulting his sister. C+.
Long, long, death scene. By now I'm bored. C-
It ends on some tuneful, melancholic orchestration that is actually better than what came before it, B+.
Act IV comes to an end, the weakest of them all so far. B- overall.
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Act V now.
OK, now we get Marguerite in a church, trying to pray and Mephisto stopping her from doing it, ballerinas come around for a few seconds (no full ballet in this production, pitty, because I heard that the ballet music in Gounod's Faust is very beautiful), she is arrested. Souvient-toi du passé - the Mephisto aria that was missing before, is now up next. I guess this production switched the order of scenes. It is pretty good. A-.
Seigneur, accuillez la prière - Marguerite sings, very lyrical, beautiful. Again we are in A territory. The scene ends well with the Devil shouting À toi l'enfer!
Sc 2, the ballet, is skipped in this production.
There is a long brass/clarinet introduction to Sc 3, I like it, B+ at least if not A-.
Marguerite is in her prison cell. Faust and Mephisto come along, Mephisto leaves, Faust sings. Oui, c'est toi. Rather good. A-.
Gounod, Barbier and Carré try to move into high drama. I'm not sure if they succeed. It all seems to lack punch, since this love duet is definitely not as good as the one in Act III. B-
A waltz tune comes up while they recall their first meeting. Nice. B+
The orchestra comes alive and comments on the action rather nicely (unlike in most of the opera). It's ending well, and moving back into an A for this scene.
Marguerite's melody, helped by the orchestra is actually quite beautiful and gets an A+. Le diable drags Faust away. Marguerite is about to be beheaded. Jugée... sauvée. Some church-like music comes... Paix et félicité, they sing. But then Ken Russell screws up - he changes the ending!!! The guillotine falls. A gory, bizarre scene comes up when we see Marguerita's beheaded corpse raising from her coffin. Whaaaaat? This isn't Gounod's ending. Final curtain.
Act V gets an A.
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So, time for the final judgment of this opera. Five acts. B-, B+, A, B-, A.
The two As cancel the two B-, and we get to an overall B+ score. Seems fair.
A B+ for me means that it doesn't surpasses the threshold to become one of my favorites, but has its merits.
It is hard to understand why this opera is so much more popular than the vastly superior
La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz, which shares the same topic and is better in every way we look into it (orchestration, libretto, pace, lyricism, dramatic impact, creativity, effectiveness, duration, etc.).
About this production - meh. Rather weak staging with outrageous betrayal of the opera's ending, and some stage director gimmicks (come on, Ken Russell!) that didn't work at all (Marguerite is depicted as a nun). So-so singing. Gabriella and Ruggero did fairly well, but Francisco was subpar. But I don't think what I'm saying about this opera has to do with the production. Of course this opera can be made better by more talented singers and better stage directing, but it won't ever be as good as Berlioz's.