It is strange that every time I hear Gounod’s Faust, I am surprised by how beautiful this music is. I mean, the weird thing is that I always forget it. Yes, everybody likes to say that it was extremely popular in the 19th century and then it has fallen out of favor with the audiences. I can see why – the opera is foreign to the philosophical ambition of Goethe’s concept, the story as told by Jules Barbier et Michel Carré sounds almost nonsensical in the 21th century and the score’s beauty is on the syrupy side. I write this with no prejudice; it’s like Canada’s prime maple syrup, who can resist it? Yet it requires a lot of imagination for musicians and the audience to embrace this universe of sentimentality and bask in its beauty. This is probably why some of us loose the connection withit as soon as the opera ends. Curiously, stage directors seem to get there more easily than singers and conductors, probably because you can always adopt a cynical point of view when staging it. I mean, you cannot sing Ah, je ris or Salut, demeure from a cynical point of view.
Jan Philipp Gloger’s production is not cynical in detail. Here Faust is not an old man, but only a bored married privileged guy who cannot stop fantasizing about living la vida loca, while Marguerite is genuinely tired of waiting for something to happen in her proletarian life. So why not taking advantage of her? Everything is made to look chic and grand and exciting, even when a little bit more of repose would be helpful. For instance, the first Faust/Marguerite duet with couples in public display of sensuality everywhere felt embarrassing rather than sexy. I only feel that Marguerite’s redemption in the end might be only in her imagination, but it means something to her, and it is her way out of the abuses she suffer from basically every single character in the plot but for Siébel. So, even if it only exists in her mind, her mind is her whole world and, therefore, it is real for her – and that is what the music is telling us. It is taking her point of view.
Conductor Ryan McAdams deserves praise for taking the music at face value. It is a grand Romantic opera, and he has produced a grand Romantic orchestral sound for it. He didn’t try to save its reputation by making it profounder, but let the music flow, even if this meant some messy ensembles. It felt like genuine excitement in the scenes with the chorus. He didn’t try to make it sound fussy either as an Ersatz for “French” style either. I guess it is always best to leave the French decide what “French” means, because it is always a bit hard to understand what they mean by it. Anita Hartig deserves praise for the way she incorporated the little-woman-ness of the part of Marguerite. In acts 2 and 3, not only did she manage to act it with absolute naturalness, but also sing it with utter sincerity. She sounded aptly young and bright-toned, while her middle register had enough warmth and sensuousness. Most importantly, she phrased with the kind of immediate emotional vividness Ileana Cotrubas could produce at her best. From act 4 on, the tightness, the droopiness and the strain in her high register crept in, disfiguring Il ne revient pas and mostly her final scene. Saimir Pirgu has the right voice for the part, once you get used to the not truly attractive sound of his first octave. The high notes are easy, firm, well-focused and the tone is clear as one would want in this repertoire. He can be a bit emphatic as a Puccini tenor sometimes, and was at his best in act 3, where he showed his ability with tone colouring and dynamic finesse. I am not sure that Mephistophelès is a role close to Roberto Tagliavini’s vocalità and personality. He exudes likability and has a noble, velvety, uncomplicated voice. He worked hard to show some mojo – as much as José Van Dam in the Plasson recording – but when one hears someone really going for broke and offering some danger in it (René Pape, when I last saw this opera, for example), then the part really comes to life. The fact that this evening’s Wagner, Jungrae Noah Kim, had a darker and earthier voice made things a tad more problematic. Alexandra Kadurina was a Siébel with a little bit more testosterone than usual – and that’s for the best. Finally, Liliana Nikiteanu as Marthe proved again that there really aren’t small roles.
I HEAR VOICES 
Faust is not a great opera, but it does get more flack than it deserves. And the Walpurgis Night scene at least is IMO amazing.
Yes, it won’t change anyone’s life, but it has its charms – and is a very good vehicle for a soprano, a tenor and a bass. These roles offer a lot for a singer to show everything he or she can do. I would add that a good conductor can have fun with it too.
Yes, it’s definitely not helped that it’s usually conducted by whoever is on hand. It also seems to defeat most stage director.
Works like Faust have suffered from the fact that they have become niche repertoire. When we look at the discography, all the usual suspects are there: Cluytens, Prêtre, Plasson. There is no Karajan or Abbado Faust. In terms of casting, there was a moment in which all big names seemed to be interested in it. So yes, there’s Caballé/Freni/Te Kanawa and Araiza/Domingo/Aragall. I don’t mean that these singers are better than the specialists in French repertoire, but, I don’t know, they bring some fresh air. Then there was the Plasson with Studer and Leech and then that was it. What I mostly see today is a famous bass – like Furlanetto or Pape – and some other people. Only in New York the diet of big names lasted for many decades before it it was gone as everywhere else.
As for directors, I get it. It’s an ingrate task. The librettists drained the story of all depth and made it almost unpalatable for modern audiences. All stagings I have seen go for the money-point-of-view, which is the single one that makes some sense, although Marguerite’s downfall really needs a lot of work from the director in order for a first-timer to understand why the victim is so abused. I mean, everybody gets that at the time she would never be seen as a “honest woman” anymore, but the nastiness she gets (even before the dead baby) is almost unchristian… in a plot where this seems to be relevant. Well, I guess haha
I don’t think ANY recorded Faust is ideal and I think most of the tenors and sopranos who recorded those roles were not caught at their best. Caballe IMPO basically makes hash of the role, Te Kanawa sounds droopy and dry, and Freni pours of geysers of sound but if probably the butchest I’ve ever heard in that role. It’s a grateful role but also more challenging that it seems. I don’t really know a lot of women who didn’t find some moment very challenging.
The less said about Domingo in that role the better.
Haha, true. And we haven’t spoken of the Sutherland/Corelli …
They can at least really sore in the final trio.
Even Gounod could hear it from heaven haha