Welsh National Opera |
| Welsh National Opera- The Damnation of Faust , Wales Millennium Centre , May 22, 2007 |
In what is rather an odd summer season for an opera company, Berlioz’s La Damnation of Faust is rather an oddly difficult work to pull off with any great success as a performance.This is further complicated when you have singers who have rather different approaches to what they should do physically in a concert performance of a highly charged dramatic work. The end result is that we have an evening that is certainly good on the ear, dramatically mixed and frankly a performance that might have sat more easily at St David’s Hall with a larger chorus. I suppose this might have also enabled the venue to be freed up for more shows rather than remaining dark for such a long period. Musically Berlioz creation is a masterpiece and takes the listener on a gargantuan journey in contrasting nightmare visions with exquisite lullabies, pastoral idylls with tavern scenes, marches and country dances. For me as an audience member, however, this “Legende dramatique” in four parts is less than the sum of its parts. With surtitles introducing the musical set pieces this has more of a feel of an impressive collection of pieces of music than a unified work. This was in some part reinforced by the contrast in dramatic styles of the singers. Gregory Kunde sort of acted the role, with longing gazing into distance at passing armies, dancing peasants etc and Alastair Milne drew remarkable dramatic conviction from the role of Mephistopheles. Yet our Marguerite, although sung with great beauty by Anne Murray’s lack of dramatic interpretation could not have been more difficult. Massimo Giordano had been scheduled to sing the jaded, suicidal philosopher Faust who makes a pact with the devil and pays the price. In his place we had American tenor Gregory Kunde, who has sung the role to acclaim in other musical venues. Kunde had that certain ennui so essential to the role but was able to contrast that with bursts of joy and heartfelt passion. Thus we had a performance that was as contrasting in colour, tone and expression as the rollercoaster adventure Faust is taken on by Mephistopheles. The joy of the evening for me was Alastair Milne’s Mephistopheles, a portrayal that created an intoxicating devil, part mesmerising seducer, part elegant charmer, oozing bile, sarcasm and malice. Milne brought the part to life with no need for costume or props as he fairly spat fire at times in this delicious role. Milne does not sing the role on the work’s second Cardiff performance .Polish bass Adam Kruszewski takes over the role. Ann Murray sang her two main arias with great musicality and feeling although the contrast with the fiery performances of Milne and Kunde was jarring. David Hoare sang a fine Brander and, like his fellow principal, sang the French libretto with clarity. I am not sure why we had the English translation on both the surtitle screens and no Welsh translation. I am equally unsure whether it is the acoustics of the Donald Gordon Hall (particularly where singers are standing on the stage) that contributed to the choir’s lack of impact at times. No such problem with the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera under the baton of musical director Carlo Rizzi who displayed his characteristic relationship with his players, at times caressing them and at other times bouncing up and down as if on a spring. Somewhere in the programme notes an idea was raised that this piece would suit itself more to a film treatment than trying to turn into a staged opera. Frankly, I doubt it. Rather I wonder how a dance company could use Berlioz’s self-contained pieces of music. In reality it is probably far better to leave things as they are and allow our imaginations to run wild when the orchestra invokes nature, rides into the abyss or is off with fairies. There is a further performance on June 1 at Wales Millennium Centre. The only other performance is at the Hippodrome in Birmingham on June 20. |
Reviewed by: Mike Smith |
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