Faust

This is a nice, clean production of "Faust" for the whole family. I liked Des McAnuff's concept of moving the timeframe into the 1940s, immediately post Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The background depicts a well known photograph of a Hiroshima building, green smoke wafting eerily past it. Faust has spent his whole life studying the sciences, theology included, but has never really experienced life and the pleasures it can offer. He feels that he has wasted his life and accomplished nothing. Goethe lets his Faust say "Now there I stand, poor fool, and know as little as before". So that is the mindset of Faust when this opera begins. He comes on stage slowly, supported by a cane and holding a large white handkerchief which he uses occasionally to wipe his face. He feels that he has sold people a bill of goods by pretending to know more than he actually did and is tired of all his accumulated knowledge, most of all his knowledge of theology. He curses all of it and wants to try black magic.He summons Satan. Mephisto, one of Satan's delegates, appears in the form of a very suave looking Rene Pape and he really steals the show, I think. He moves with the grace of a cabaret dancer and seems to thoroughly enjoy himself in this role. Jonas Kaufmann, of course, makes Faust look like a very likeable man and he is aided here by the composer or librettist who left out some of Faust's evil deeds. So you feel sympathy for Faust who seems to never find the pleasures he sold his soul for. When he finds Marguerite, the young girl he saw in a vision, he does love and leave her, though, persuaded and seduced by Mephisto, although he seems to love her. So that is his misdeed in this story. Marina Poplavskaya sings a very touching Marguerite and she can hit some very high notes. I wondered why the director wanted her to look so frumpy. Her clothes and blondish hair with dark roots looked dirty while her beloved Faust looked like a sharply dressed magazine model from the 1940s. Did the director want to shift the audience's sympathy from Marguerite to Faust? Faust eventually has another vision of Marguerite and goes to see her but a duel between Faust and Marguerite's brother ensues in which the brother is fatally wounded with Mephisto's help. Faust flees and leaves the visibly pregnant Marguerite to be cursed by her brother. Marguerite is next seen in the cathedral where she has gone to pray and she apparently gives birth to the baby there, then drowns it in the holy water basin. Thankfully, nothing graphic is shown here. Next Marguerite is shown in a cage which represents her prison cell and Faust tries to persuade her to follow him when he unlocks her cell door but she sees Mephisto and senses Evil. She still loves Faust but no longer trusts him. She declines his offer and ascends the stairway to Heaven instead while Faust disappears through a trap door, presumably on his way to Hell but he then reappears in his laboratory, drinks a potion and sinks to the floor. There are many excellent singers in this production, I especially liked Michele Losier as Siebel and I usually don't like seeing women in men's roles,but she pulls it off. There are some beautiful melodies in this opera , the well known waltz, for instance. Then there is Faust's aria "Demeure chaste et pure..." for which Jonas Kaufmann received a rousing ovation and Marguerite's "Chanson du roi de Thule". It's all sung in French but you have the usual subtitles. Rene Pape's French diction is excellent and easily understood but Marina Paplovskaya seems to have considerable difficulty with the pronounciation. All in all, I like this production and I will watch it many more times as I always see something I had not noticed before.

I had my reservations about getting this Faust because I find Jonas Kaufmann's voice to be so too dark for my tastes (I generally like my tenors on the lyrico side of the things), but his portrayal of Faust was beautiful: well sung and acted. And I had never heard of Marina Poplavskaya before this DVD. What a voice! Even along the top and bottom with gorgeous ringing tone! Rene Pape was of course terrific as Mephisto and the entire supporting cast was excellent (Wendy White as Martha was luxury casting in my book). And while I had my doubts about the updated time period between the two World Wars, it actually worked well. I would recommend this production across the board.

I was introduced to the lead superstar tenor watching this online.I have played violin in a production of Faust, and have seen more traditional versions in setting. But this was stunning.The Mephetoples bass was magnificent enough to almost upstage Faust.All cast members were extremely believable, with the time period set in the 19th century.Many stage tricks were mesmerizing as well as some pretty interesting dance moves to the devil’s spell

I want to start with a few statements about my own taste in opera. First, I confess to being a rather new consumer of the art having taken a few classes and listened to opera daily for a few years. I own many DVDs. My taste is in traditional staging over modernized productions. I love Wagner's operas. I enjoy Verdi. (There seems to be Wagner/Verdi camps)With that, how could I possibly give 5 stars to a modernized staging of this opera? The staging, while modernized, is not "bare bones" as some have said here. It's modernistic, not spartan. For comparison, I recently reviewed an extremely silly production of Parsifal that takes place with the singers dressed in leaves climbing around in bushes with lighting so poor you can hardly see them. That is modernized staging that goes to the awful. This isn't whacky. It's updated.That updating gives me an initial pause. When I see these modernized sets, the production needs to prove itself to me. This production had me within 10 minutes. The performances are rare captures. The entire cast delivers a magnificent performance. This will be the gold standard for Faust [performances] in the future. The singing and acting are so good, it's hard to focus on the set. It's there, it adds to mood, but doesn't intrude. If you allow your mind to wonder about what they are trying to say with the bomb and war and nuclear labs, well, you'll miss a great opera.To be clear, the performances are excellent. The acting is moving. The staging is unobtrusive---not in the way of this superb production.So, if there is criticism, it can possibly be traced to the opera itself. Why does Faust leave the girl of his dreams in the first place? That's a big hole to leave unfilled in the story. Can't blame the setting for what isn't in the script. Gounod gives us beautiful music but as is the case with many operas, the 'plot' is a bit convoluted and the storyline is certainly flawed. Don't blame the production. When a novel becomes a movie, the producers take great liberties with the story. That can't be done with opera. Remember that.This is a wonderful opera and I highly recommend it to anyone. And, if you are relatively new to opera and want to try a modern production that is as enjoyable as a traditional staging, try this. You'll be happy with it.Last comment. The between scenes interviews are interesting but demeaning. I haven't explored the DVD to see if those corny interviews can be shut off. These "half time reports" give the opera a sporting event feel. The questions are stupid---asking Pape if he mixes up the role from day to day as in evil one day, mysterious the next, etc., is absurd. His answer is fitting. Of course he doesn't change the role from day to day, there are other singers who must respond to his part---it would be nuts to be changing it up. So please Met, stop this opera for the masses nonsense. The masses can rise. Don't stoop.Thank you for reading this. I'd like your comments.

Gute Inszenierung und fantastische Besetzung

A dramatically innovative and exciting approach blows most conventionally stuffy productions of Gounod’s hoary chestnut out of the window. This DVD is a tribute more to the artistic skills and fertile imagination of Des McAnuff and his gifted team of designers than to the quality of the singing. I have heard much better renditions of the leading roles from the likes of Nicolai Gedda, Victoria de los Angeles, and Boris Christoff than the present ensemble. They are riddled with competence. Not a damned soul hits a wrong note. But they create few moments of vocal excitement such as would have brought me out of my theatre seat if I were actually sitting in one, rather than my cosy armchair. On the other hand, their acting skills are evident through every twist and turn of the drama, and they brought the persons they represented vividly to life. The most moving moments were often those enacted when they were NOT singing at all. Although set seemingly during an imaginary World War 1 over which shades of Hiroshima and the nuclear future hovered, with sets that were inspired by some of Robert Lepage’s operatic projects, cinematic images projecting battlefield carnage and the witches of Walpurgisnacht, the dramatic focus reminded me very much of one of the Met’s modern triumphs ----- Dr. Atomic (John Adams). The film directing and editing are brilliant, and the whole could readily be enjoyed as a movie drama with the lyrics spoken rather than sung. The rejuvenation of the aged hero, the degradation and subsequent redemption of Marguerite, and the menacing cynicism of Mephisto were brilliantly brought to life as in no other production of this work that I have ever seen. Full marks for the sound production and the expert playing and singing of the Met’s formidable forces under the highly gifted Yannick Nezet-Seguin who in 2020 will take over as its Musical Director. Back to the principals: I have heard Rene Pape sing better on many other occasions, but never before have I appreciated his comic genius. Kaufmann has also done better, as in his Wagner roles and Hoffman. I have not heard Marina Poplavskaya previously, but her singing did not impress me. However, think of this as “Music Drama”, and in that context it is superlative.

音楽は、時に濃厚で時にユーモラスで、美しい旋律のオンパレード。歌手、コーラス、指揮者、オーケストラ、一流のプロたちが楽しみながら舞台を作リ上げているのがよくわかる。通常は伝統的なコスチュームものを好むが、ほかの演出を見ていないせいか、２０世紀近代（現代ではない）に置き換えた演出に違和感は感じなかった。宗教をきちんと理解しているわけではないが、神を信じる、あるいは信じない人間の弱さ、その弱さの中にある確固たる強さ、古今東西変わらない人間性というテーマに、久々に心が揺さぶられた。ブラボー！

la valutazione massima che ho attribuito all'interpretazione complessiva dell'opera è, a mio umile avviso, che si avvale di un cast formidabile, di una direzione vivacissima , che si contrappone si adatta alla dolcezza di alcuni momenti veramente struggenti. la scenografia, seppur moderna, suggestiva al massimo con l'uso sapiente delle luci. che dire ancora, che insieme ad alcuni amici spettatori con me del lavoro sono rimasti stupitii della bellezza dell'opera che assolutamente non conoscevamo.

It seems not to be appreciated by the public, but the entire conception of this production is to present Faust as a key atomic scientist who made possible the incineration of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Without a soapbox, the production daringly seeks to impute parallels between the intellectual thrills and exitements that lured Faust to pry loose deadly atomic secrets from nature --- an evil enterprise ---and Faust the seducer thrilled by the allurement of exploiting Margarite's trust and her pleas of "You must go now." Both are proceeding under the auspices of Mephisto and the annhilation of the Good. In both cases, Faust is going where the powers of darkness are showing the way. Without these powers, the Good would be preserved. The deadly atomic secrets would stay undiscovered and Margarite would stay unviolated. The production equates the exciting pursuit of forbidden atomic knowledge with Faust's bringing down Margarite's defenses, both of which require invasion of forbidden realms + the resources of the powers of darkness.The concept succeeds with great subtlety and imagination. From the very start, the lyrics have acquired sinister double meanings equating erotic excitement and the delirium of unlocking the atomic secrets of the world. The stage projections of limitless skies portray the avenues for future atomic attacks. Solemn, white coated scientists with clipbpboards substitute for the thrill happy mob of other productions. The threat of Pandora's box & the annhilation of mankind hangs palpably over everything --- scenes, stage sets, philosophy, crowd scenes, costumes --- and as the curtain descends on Margarite's seduction, the startlingly real figure of death appears at stage left making explicit the connection between the two realms. This production is making demands on us that demand new, higher plateaux of discussion than the usual jabber about the quality of the voices. The old, conventional frameworks of discussion about "who sang best?" --- while germane ---don't unearth enough in this case.Of course all this unfolds on a rarified and moral level that transcends historical questions about the actual Manhattan project and its mandatory historic justifications. It carries us into the realm of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST and Mozart's operatic landscapes (with caveats, of course.). It makes a breathtaking attempt to SUGGEST LATENT LINKAGES between singing, staging and excruciating moral responsibilities that ask if the futures of all humanity have been fatally undercut, and related issues so important as to to be capable only of being hinted at. To what degree are the forces of darkness behind it all? It will take endless viewings to begin to absorb the suble reach of this ambitious (and possibly great) innovation.