Company

Singer

Tenor

Iván Guillermo Ayón Rivas

Faust

Bass

Alex Esposito

Mephistopheles

Soprano

Carmela Remigio

Marguerite

Baritone

Guillaume Andrieux

Valentine

Mezzo-soprano

Paola Gardina

Siebel

William Corrò

Wagner

Julie Mellor

Martha Schwertlein

Bologna

Italy

Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Venice

Teatro La Fenice

Frédéric Chaslin

Conductor

Stage director

Joan Anton Rechi

Costume designer

Giorgia Salaverri

Set designer

Sebastian Ellrich

Orchestra

Choir

Lighting designer

Alberto Rodríguez

Chorus master

Alfonso Caiani

Choir of the Teatro La Fenice

Orchestra Del Teatro La Fenice

nemčina

Faust Gounod

Public

Opera

taliančina

angličtina

Approved

Charles Gounod, "Faust" - valzer (fine atto 2)

CAST
Direttore Frédéric Chaslin
Regia, scene e costumi Joan Anton Rechi
light designer Fabio Barettin

Doctor Faust Ivan Ayon Rivas
Méphistophélès Alex Esposito
Marguerite Carmela Remigio
Valentin Armando Noguera
Wagner William Corrò
Siébel Paola Gardina
Marthe Schwertlein Julie Mellor

Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice
maestro del Coro Claudio Marino Moretti

ballerini
Giulia Mostacchi
Gianluca D’Aniello
Assistente regia Tamara Heimbrock

riprese video oxymore productions
audio Teatro La Fenice

Take the greatest masterpiece of German literature, translate it and betray it by transforming its philosophical message into a sequence of beguiling arias and – voilà! – you have Gounod's Faust, one of the world's most popular operas. But it was not always so. Faust was created at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris in 1859 with spoken dialogue. It met with critical interest, but not with public fervour. It would take several years to reach its “definitive” version at the Opéra, ten years later, with sung recitatives and a ballet. Born as an opéra-comique, Faust became a grand opéra. Audiences were ecstatic, but the critics were lukewarm.

Jules Barbier and Michel Carré's libretto is structured in five acts – the third, the scene in the garden and the love duet, is the pivotal one, the second act presents the meeting of the lovers, the fourth the separation, all set between two acts that serve as prologue and epilogue. The work joins those by Berlioz (La Damnation de Faust, 1846), Boito (Mefistofele, 1868) and Busoni (Doktor Faust, 1924) also inspired by Goethe, but here the religious theme is predominant, so much so that Joan Antón Rechi, who is now directing it at La Fenice, transforms the Venetian theatre into a cathedral, with church pews instead of theatre seats and the audience in the boxes and galleries. The floor is initially covered by a cloth which, when removed, shows a mirrored floor reflecting the tiers of boxes and the lights from the sconces and the large glass chandelier that shine on the 18th-century theatre – completing its transformation into a ballroom for the waltz scene.

It is set at the time of composition, with women in big skirts and men in military uniforms or double-breasted topcoats. The action takes place both in the stalls and on the stage: the sanitary distancing here becomes an effective dramaturgical choice by the Andorran, who does not renounce some directorial quirks such as the moving of the pews by two figures in black in a long silence marked only by their footsteps on the floor, or the gag of the photograph of the chorus lined up on stage for "Gloire immortelle", or the return of Valentin's ghost, dragging Marguerite away by her feet. But on the whole, it is an intelligent, dazzling production that reintroduces the splendour of grand opéra in a modern way, with lively acting and very effective action. Rechi also designed the costumes, while the beautiful effect of the light filtering through an imaginary church rose window was by lighting designer Fabio Berettin.

Frédéric Chaslin is an expert in French music and gave a unified vision of the complexity of Faust, despite the fragmentary nature of the musical numbers with their astonishing melodic and instrumental richness. In the programme notes, the Parisian conductor (who is also a composer, pianist and writer) refers to Mahler as the only musician to have truly understood the essence of Goethe's work in his Eighth Symphony. In retrospect, these considerations came to mind after listening to some moments in the finale of Act 3 that actually recalled atmospheres that, for us, would be reminiscent of Mahler's music.

The dramatic weight of Gounod's Faust slides into the female character of Marguerite, here soprano Carmela Remigio, a singer with temperament but little suited to the part: she was justifiably expressive but at the expense of a jagged vocal line, with unnatural register jumps, unclear diction and a general lack of brilliance, evident in her Jewel Song. Iván Ayón Rivas expressed himself in the title role with elegant phrasing and excellent mezza voci, but he always seemed to be pawing at high notes, which did arrive brightly, but were often excessive. Armando Noguera (Valentin) displayed great stage presence but also a strange emission in the lower register, while Paola Gardina, a delightful Siébel, was excellent and sensitive.
The real sensation of the evening was Alex Esposito, who gave an excellent interpretation of Méphistophélès. The director turned him into a magician/hypnotist in top hat and tails, filling the stage with his presence even before the opera began, when he sat motionless on the last pew of Rechi's imagined church. From that moment, he does not have a moment's rest: we see him leap nimbly over the pews, then disappear and quickly reappear on the stage, confronting characters, subjugating them with his mind, always as invisible. He is seen only by those who have done evil – like Marguerite after the murder of her newborn child, when she clings to him instead of the faithless Faust. With this bass-baritone from Bergamo, there is no distinction between singing and acting. We marvelled at his vocal projection, his enunciation, carving the words without being cloying, and he displayed almost perfect diction. The scene of Méphistophélès' mocking serenade brought together the director's genius and Esposito's fine acting: as in a café chantant gig framed by a spotlight, he demonstrated his extraordinary theatrical talents and the audience compensated him with open applause and final cheers. This time, Gounod's Faust should have been titled Méphistophélès...

La Fenice transformed into a cathedral for Joan Antón Rechi's vision of Gounod's Faust

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Until World War Faust by Gounod (1859) he remained in the number of the most performed operas in the world, and today the figure in the repertoire. The plot, adapted by librettists Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, is based on the first part of Goethe's Faust, a poem which inspired many composers. Famous pieces are, among others, the waltz «Ainsi que la brise légère» and the Bacchic choir «Vin ou bière» in the second act; in the third, the cavatina of Faust «Salut! Demeure chaste et pure », and for Marguerite the Ballad of the King of Thule and the Aria of jewels. In 1869, when Faust made his debut at the Paris Opera, Gounod added a ballet in the fifth act depicting a wild sabbath of devils and witches on the Brocken mountain.

Faust by Charles-François Gounod, Od Teatro La Fenice (2022/2022), Režírované Joan Anton Rechi,, Dirigent Frédéric Chaslin

Kredity (Obsadenie a posádka)

Teatro La Fenice

Frédéric Chaslin

Joan Anton Rechi

Obsadenie

Iván Guillermo Ayón Rivas

Alex Esposito

Carmela Remigio

Guillaume Andrieux

Paola Gardina

William Corrò

Julie Mellor

Posádka

Giorgia Salaverri

Sebastian Ellrich

Alberto Rodríguez

Alfonso Caiani

Súbor

Choir of the Teatro La Fenice

Orchestra Del Teatro La Fenice

Koproducent

Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Program, informácie a súhrn

Recenzie

Videá 1

snímky 4

Ďalšie čítanie

Termíny a miesta vystúpení 5