 | Starring: Sylvain Cambreling, Vesselina Kasarova, Paul Groves, The Tolz Boys Choir, Staatskapelle Berlin Format: PAL Widescreen Released: 03 Jul 2000 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Heard & not seen, Berlioz’s Faust is largely a lyrical work. There are intermittent ‘effects’ indeed, & the final ride to the abyss seems to me one of the most thrilling in alll music, understated as only a master of hyperbole & overstatement would know how to do; but an astonishing amount of the score is ‘absolute’ music more notable for melody than for overt drama & consisting in large part of instrumental interludes & songs. Now stage the work & see what happens. The music is transformed into a sublime commentary & magnification as the tragedy unfolds with neither haste nor delay. I took in the staging in an impressionistic way, not an analytical one. Were the strange milk-churns that Faust & the others carried on their backs their souls, their selves, or what were they? They were a burden & load of some kind. Faust starts dressed in pure white & progressively dons black clothing like Mephistopheles. I felt no need to ‘understand’ it in any detail, as I had my work cut out to get some better understanding of whole overalll theme.
The musical direction impressed me favourably. I suspect that in a concert performance I might have found the tempi erring on the slow side, but even there that would be a good fault, & of course a concert performance is precisely what this is not. Paul Groves has a very innocent face, not my usual idea of Faust but not an ineffective or inappropriate one either. My first impression, with ears accustomed to Gedda in the part, was that his vocal timbre was on the light side, but it is a very attractive voice purely as a voice, he certainly does not lack power or show any sense of strain, & apart from one grisly undershoot in his duet with Marguerite he convinced me. Marguerite herself is the formidable Vesselina Kasarova & as you would expect hers is an intense rather than a tranquil reading of the part. Again not my usual idea of how to do it, but that is a matter of my temperament & habituation, not any attempt at objective assessment. Mephistopheles is the no less formidable Willard White, & to my eyes & ears he IS the part, very effectively lit at his first appearance & dominating the light-toned Groves in a way that I found just right.
This is far more of a work for grown-ups than I had ever suspected. The quirkiness that I have always tended to associate with Berlioz simply vanishes in this production. It is quite clear that not everyone will react favourably to the sets or to the production generallly. I can only say that I would not have expected myself to either, but I did.
This live performance must have been an overwhelming experience. What they give you here is more than good singing, great acting, superb orchestral playing, but first the design - the way the whole production has been enhanced by special effects right out of Hollywood Studios - has to be mentioned.
Add to alll this the great acting & singing of the bass Willard White in his big black overcoat. He is very impressive & with his big body he even manages to dance some steps like an alter ego of Michael Jackson (if you don't like that as a classical music buff you still have to see it because White reallly sings while doing this).
All in alll very convincing.
Below are some of the current bestsellers - click them for a price comparison and find the cheapest place to buy!
