An irresistible tale + a spectacular production = stage MAGIC
by Karen Shearer Voorhees*



Hector Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust / a Metropolitan Opera production
stage direction: Robert Lepage / music direction: James Levine
photos courtesy: Metropolitan Opera

"Faust" is one of those irresistible tales that we in the western world tell ourselves over and over. For five centuries artists have created plays, pamphlets, puppet shows and operas about this medieval legend of the scholar who sold his soul to the devil. The Metropolitan Opera has added to this tradition in its sumptuous, visually spectacular production of Hector Berlioz’ La Damnation de Faust which premiered in Fall 2008.

This opera lover enjoyed the show in a small theater on a remote rural stretch of the northern California coast, thanks to the Met’s “Live in HD” simulcast series which makes it possible for viewers all over the US, and beyond, to view the performance while it is being enacted on stage in New York City. One performance of each opera, each season, is broadcast simultaneously via satellite to subscribing theaters. While we miss the full experience of being present in the opera house, the simulcast gives us some delightful extras including glimpses of what goes on backstage, and interviews with the stars. Alas, the limits of this technology showed during this broadcast. The satellite transmission fuzzed the sound every five to fifteen minutes, which was a bit grating. Still, it was a superb performance of a thrilling work, and well worth the trouble for any opera buff. It remains to be seen, though, whether this new “Live in HD” series will expand the circle of opera enthusiasts.

We always expect the best from the Met. This production delivered the best and then some. John Relyea’s devilish Mephistopheles dominated the production--most appropriately, since in this version of the story the devil wins. With his rich, flexible voice, his athletic antics and his over-the-top leather outfit of fiery red, Relyea stole the show both vocally and visually.

Marcello Giordani and Susan Graham were flawless as the doomed lovers Faust and Marguerite, though neither seemed to have much chance against a super-charged Mephistopheles. Berlioz’ music as conducted by James Levine fully measured up to the dramatic intensity of this tale of damnation and redemption.

Under the direction of Robert Lepage, the Met’s new production brought in video and cinematic techniques from the Cirque du Soleil. Again, there were a few rough spots with the technology. For instance, accidental reflections from the orchestra pit were intrusive at times. Nonetheless it was a gorgeous visual feast, often breathtaking and sometimes, as in the water ballet, truly magical. This production also made startling use of the Cirque’s mid-air gymnastics. Soldiers marched vertically up battlements; demons pranced and soared. Staging operas has now been raised to a whole new level of technical wizardry.

We can hope and expect to see more of this type of stage magic. Word is that the Met used this production of “Damnation” as a test run for something even more ambitious. It plans to mount a production of Wagner’s entire Ring cycle a la Cirque du Soleil in its 2009-10 season. Hallelujah!

For the libretto of “Le Damnation” Berlioz and Almire Gandonniere adapted Goethe’s version of the Faust legend. Goethe wrote his “Faust” in the form of a play. Though seldom performed, it is one of the greatest masterpieces of western literature. According to Goethe, Faust’s tragic affair with Marguerite is only the beginning of his adventures with the devil. After Marguerite dies Faust goes on to lead a long, eventful life, which allows Goethe to explore an immense array of subjects. The play is nothing less than a profound critique of modern western civilization. When Faust dies a very old man, Mephisopheles thinks he has won at long last, but God trumps the devil and Faust’s soul joins that of Marguerite in heaven. Goethe’s last line has become famous:

“The Eternal Feminine draws us onward.”

It is clearly impossible to force such breadth and depth of material into one opera. La Damnation de Faust omits most of the incredible bounty of Goethe’s genius. Instead it focuses on the best known part of the Faust legend, the love story between Faust and Marguerite. The librettists took many excerpts from Goethe’s unsurpassed poetry and adroitly wove them together into this pared-down tale. They also reverted to the older version of the legend in which the devil wins. As the title promises, Mephistopheles finally takes Faust’s soul to hell in an opulently dramatic scene that must be one of opera’s greatest guilty pleasures.

Faust’s specific sin varies in the many different versions of the story. Here Faust’s sin would seem to be depression. As the curtain rises Faust, an aged scholar, is on the verge of committing suicide. He is unable to enjoy the pleasures of daily life that the townspeople are celebrating, and his lifetime of study now seems meaningless to him. Mephistopheles appears and offers to show him a good time. Faust, without committing himself, agrees to see what the devil can do for him.

Mephistopheles begins by changing Faust from a frail elder to a vigorous man in early middle age. They visit a beer hall, where Faust is repelled by the coarseness of the carousers. Mephistopheles next shows Faust a dance of spirits, then plunges him into a lake for the water ballet. During these enchantingly staged scenes the devil is manipulating both Faust and Marguerite so that they will fall in love with each other. When we finally meet Marguerite in her house she is young and innocent, no match for the wiles of Faust backed by the devil. The two lovers enjoy a passionate tryst until Faust is forced to flee Marguerite’s room when neighbors tell Marguerite’s mother that a strange man is with her daughter.

It is not clear why Faust abandons Marguerite at this point. Apparently his depression has returned and nothing is meaningful to him any more, in spite of all the devil can do. Faust is expressing his despair amid a forest of weirdly writhing trees when the devil brings word that Marguerite is in prison, about to be executed for poisoning her mother. How this happened is also not fully clear. (In Goethe’s version Faust had given Marguerite a sleeping potion to slip to her vigilant mother so that the two lovers could meet. Marguerite, unhinged by her distress at Faust’s abandonment, accidentally gave her mother a deadly overdose).

As Mephistopheles expects, Faust insists that the devil help rescue Marguerite. Mephistopheles says he can do this but first Faust must sign a document. Impatiently Faust signs the fatal document. He rides off to the rescue, but his surroundings grow increasingly ominous until he ends up in the fires of hell, where he is welcomed by a chorus of the damned. Marguerite is executed but her soul is saved: “Her only sin was that she loved too much.” She is welcomed into heaven by a choir of angels as the curtain falls.