Arrigo Boito takes a lot of heat for his opera “Mefistofele” being so episodic. But I must say, Boito is a model of continuity next to Hector Berlioz, whose “La damnation de Faust” – let’s face it – really has no business at all being staged.
That assessment has no bearing on the quality of the music, which has plenty of the hallmarks of quintessential Berlioz we mad Romantics hold so dear. Certainly, it has its share of standout moments. Alongside the recognizable orchestral highlights – “Minuet of the Will o’ the Wisps,” “Dance of the Sylphs,” the “Rákóczy March” – there’s the episode in Auerbach’s Cellar, Marguerite’s melancholy “Autrefois un roi de Thulé,” and the climactic ride to the Abyss. But I’m sorry, these disparate tableaux just don’t add up to much of an opera.
“Faust” tanked horribly during its premiere run at Paris’ Opéra-Comique in 1846. It’s sad that the composer didn’t live to see the work redeemed – and his talent vindicated – at its first concert performance, decades later, in 1877.
I won’t deny being entertained by the Robert Lepage production, streamed on the website of the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night. The conception is undeniably engaging, even if the multi-tier structure at its heart sometimes put me in mind of “Hollywood Squares.” (I kept expecting to see Paul Lynde or Wayland Flowers.) The action also reminded me at times of “moving” images viewed through a massive zoetrope. All in all, I can’t imagine anyone in the house having very much opportunity to drift off.
But it still doesn’t change my assessment that this is music best appreciated in the concert hall, of a piece with Berlioz’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The Met itself would seem to agree. Lepage’s staging was scrapped for its revival this season, in favor of concert version sung, in its purest form, from the Metropolitan stage. The extravagant apparatus – projections, pullies, and all – proved to be more trouble than it was worth.
I have not yet seen the Met’s “Les Troyens,” Berlioz’s distillation of Virgil, but based on Susan Graham’s reputation as a Berlioz interpreter – and her standout Marguerite on Monday night – she could very well be the high point of the evening. (That is, if we discount the Trojan Horse.) I can only imagine what “Faust” would have been like had Berlioz allowed it to breathe at twice its length.
Get ready for four hours of Berlioz. “Les Troyens” is tonight’s “HD Encore” stream from the Metropolitan Opera. A different opera is streamed each day for 23 hours, beginning around 7 p.m. EDT (though my experience has been that they actually make the switchover a little earlier than that). You’ll find more information at metopera.org.
IMAGE: Berlioz cartoon from 1845, “Un concert à mitraille et Berlioz” (“A concert of cannons and Berlioz”), by Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard (a.k.a. Grandville)
