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Theatermania, Dec 4, 2011 |
By David Finkle |
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Gounod: Faust, Metropolitan Opera New York, ab 29. November 2011, Vorstellung am 3. Dezember 2011 |
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Faust
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Perhaps wanting to restore some of the philosophical depth to Goethe's Faust
that composer Charles Gounod and librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carre
minimized for their 1859 opera adaptation, Des McAnuff has set his new
production, now getting its U.S. premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, in the
20th Century.
However, transforming the title character, who makes a
pact with the devil, into an atom-bomb-developing scientist longing to
revisit both his World War I youth and a girl from back then turns out to be
an unhelpful idea.
Fortunately, Yannick Nezet-Seguin's sturdy
conducting and a great deal of unassailable singing by a seasoned cast
mitigates the unfortunate foolishness resulting from the director's notion
that the physicists behind the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks forfeited
their "innocence" and lived to regret it.
Rene Pape as Satan (in a
tuxedo with red bowtie) and Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite (under a wig
that makes her look like Mary Pickford in a 1920s silent film) are the
standouts here. Pape's bass remains so resonant and so expansive that
throughout the compromised proceedings, he serves not just as a model of
dignity, but also as a model of how to shake the building's beams.
Poplavskaya may be as well suited to Marguerite as to any of the roles to
which she's drawn. She acquits herself beautifully on "The Jewel Song."
There's something simultaneously warm and cool to her tone, which continues
notably commanding during the final trio when, damned by Mephistopheles, she
rejects Faust and goes to her ultimately redemptive death.
Jonas
Kaufmann distinguishes himself playing the pivotal role, although he's
showing signs of misusing, or misjudging, his voice. He's having trouble in
his lower register that at one crucial point in the performance caused a
regrettable break during a delicate crescendo.
Michele Losier as the
Faust student enamored of Marguerite sings brightly, and Wendy White as
Martha brings a welcome earthy quality to her passages. Donald Palumbo's
much-used chorus, often outfitted in white laboratory uniforms and standing
in rigid ranks, is as well-drilled as ever.
Over the years McAnuff
has encouraged set designer Robert Brill to use metal stairs and walkways as
basic units, and here they are again -- this time featuring spiral
staircases at each side of the stage. Almost always, the structures become a
metaphor for the chilliness afflicting too many of McAnuff's productions,
and it's a problem here again.
Yes, Faust is a scientist, but it
doesn't really add to the depiction of his research that he's introduced in
a lab where models of the atom bombs are lowered and are returned into the
fly when the man goes into the suicidal swoon through which he regains the
past.
Furthermore, what purpose is served by having a man manipulate
a tall soldier puppet during a military parade? Does the eye-catching prop
symbolize something significant or is it just another cute production notion
underlining the lengths to which McAnuff will go in a work that he's already
rendered sufficiently mechanical.
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