Review of La Damnation de Faust
2.5 out of 4 Stars
There are many reasons why the Met hasn’t performed Berlioz’ 1845 opera “La Damnation de Faust” since 1906. For starters, Gonoud’s “Faust,” which also depicts the classic battle between the goodly Faust and the devilish Mephistopheles, is far more popular. Moreover, “La Damnation,” a so-called “legende dramatique,” is not a coherent opera but an uneven mix of orchestrations, short scenes and arias.
Director Robert Lepage has responded to this challenge with one of the most technologically advanced productions ever staged at the Met. Using five levels of metal scaffolding, the stage is physically divided into 24 units that resemble a giant tic-tac-toe board.
Lepage employs a complex system of computers, infrared cameras and digital projectors to create giant waves of colorful imagery that change shape and shimmer in response to the singers’ voices and movement. Often, it feels as though you are watching a giant computer screensaver.
But the spectacle doesn’t end there: soldiers hooked up to cables climb up the scaffolding, females spontaneously break into wild dances, swarms of birds suddenly materialize, and a boat is even capsized, with bodies floating out of it.
The technology is occasionally compelling. But more often than not, it feels as though Lepage is merely using the opera as a personal playground of interactive media and cinematic devices. As it turns out, “La Damnation” serves as Lepage’s tryout for his upcoming version of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” at the Met, which will employ the same technology.
Regardless of Lepage, the opera’s three principal singers (Marcello Giordani as Faust, John Relyea as Mephistopheles, Susan Graham as Marguerite) are uniformly excellent, even if their costumes look ridiculous. Graham benefits from some truly outstanding arias. And in the production’s most dazzling moment, her face is projected behind burning flames while performing “D’amour l’ardente flame.”
Conductor James Levine highlights the score’s wild romanticism and wide range of colors. So even if you have mixed feelings about Lepage’s staging, “La Damnation” is worth experiencing for its score alone.
Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, 63rd Street and Columbus Ave. 212-362-6000. $15+. Go to www.metfamilyopera.org for performance schedule. Thru Dec 4.
Comments (1)
I'd rather hear MUCH more about the music and the singing and much less about the production's gimmickry. How about a paragraph on each of the three principal singers, rather than a single paragraph lumping them together and giving one word about the singing ("excellent"). You have praise also, but no specifics, for Levine's conducting.
Opera is about the whole package--the set, stage spectacle, costumes--but mostly it's about the music, and how the music was performed. The singing, especially. That's what people who read opera reviews want to know about.