Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. Balcony (Seat A115, $92.50.)
Story. Mefistofele
makes the claim to God that all humans are degenerate, he is asked if he knows
Faust. Mefistofele boasts that he can
ensnare the aging, fanatical scholar.
Mefistofele approaches Faust and offers his services on the condition
that their positions are reversed after Faust’s death. Faust agrees to a contract with the
stipulation that he finds true happiness with the words, “Stay, for you are
beautiful.” The rejuvenated Faust, calling
himself Enrico, courts the village maiden Margherita. When Margherita says her mother would object,
Faust gives her a sleeping potion provided by Mefistofele. Mefistofele then leads Faust to witness the
Witches’ Sabbath where Mefistofele is declared their king. Faust also sees a vision of a woman with a
ring of blood around her neck that reminds him of Faust. Faust goes back to the village where Margherita
is imprisoned for killing her mother and drowning the baby she has with Faust.
She refuses to leave her prison as she cannot bear living a life of remorse,
and when she renounces Faust, a celestial choir proclaims her salvation. Faust
is then transported to ancient Greece where he meet with Helen of Troy, and
they eventually pledge their love.
Mefistofele is somehow uncomfortable with the situation. In the epilogue, Faust reflects on his love
of a real person bringing suffering, and of a goddess an illusion. Towards the end, Faust is enraptured in his
own vision of bliss, utters the fateful sentence and dies, but redeemed. Mefistofele exists in defiance.
Conductor – Carlo Ricci. Mefistofele – Christian van
Horn, Faust – Michael Fabiano, Margherita – Angela Meade, Elena – Jennifer Check.
First a few words about the story. What I wrote was the best I could do from the
synopsis in the Playbill and my own recollection of the opera. It doesn’t quite hang together, and neither
does the story as it unfolded on stage this evening. Evidently one can tell the story in different
ways, with different events, and different outcomes. One salient feature of today’s story is the
emphasis on the devil; not quite told from his point of view, but with him as the
title character. In Berlioz’s and Gounod’s
versions Margherita either kills her mother or baby, but she kills both in
Boito’s version. The Helen of Troy
component is new, and that Faust finds redemption is also new.
Those who lament the state of American singers can also
take heed that all four principal characters are born in the US, two of them in
NJ, and one in NY. Christian van Horn is
a recent winner of the Richard Tucker competition, and we had seen him a few
times before, most recently as Colline in La Boheme. He did a credible job as the devil, although I
would like him to be a bit more sinister. His singing was strong most of the time, except
when he was in the back of the rather large stage, there his voice didn’t
project that well. There were many scenes where he appeared bare-chested, and
he had to jump onto a long table at one point.
Maybe he had on a tight body suit, and maybe the table was slanted so
the step wasn’t not as high, but he still managed to pull it off. In looking over my blog, I discovered I had
seen Fabiano a couple of times before, with one of the time as Faust in Opera
Australia’s production of the Gounod version, and I enjoyed his singing very
much. In the larger auditorium his voice
was not nearly as impressive, but still quite effective. There is no question Angela Meade can sing
well, while she wasn’t quite credible as the young village girl, she was great
when Margherita’s innocence turned into despair as she sat in prison. She was on stage for only limited time though.
Both the first and second parts started with the raising
of a couple of curtains. One was flames
licking at the curtain – reasonably enough; the other was a screen with singers
sitting or standing behind it. At the
maximum there were about 100 of them, and they all wore this mask, but I am
sure it was a mixed and a children’s chorus.
They don’t look particularly tormented, so I wasn’t sure if they were in
hell. Also, on the two balconies there were
these people sitting throughout the opera.
A couple of noteworthy sets. One is the scene at Witches’ Sabbath. Here we have van Horn directly a motley crew
of witches and warlocks, some nude, some scantily dressed (all with body suits,
no doubt,) singing praises to him. The
other was where the aforementioned long table where Mefistofele danced with a
balloon that was supposed to represent the earth, which he eventually
popped. For an instant there was this
woman in the back that was supposed to be a vision of Margherita.
Arrigo Boito wrote many lyrics for operas, including Verdi’s
Otello and Falstaff. For this opera he
wrote both the lyrics and the music. While
the songs are tonal, they are not lyrical.
I don’t think I have come across any of them in the past.
I didn’t look into the specifics of this opera when I
booked it as part of our subscription, but I didn’t quite expect a traditional
opera that is on such a grand scale (at least as far as the large chorus is
concerned.) Anne describes the whole
experience as a bit “busy” as one could absorb only so much. It’s too bad that I will have to give it a
thumbs down based on this one encounter.
While the singing was good, it was not good enough to overcome the
somewhat incoherent story and the paucity of hummable melodies.
The New York Times review has good and bad things to say
about the performance. The reviewer
characterizes the opera as lavish but flawed, and saying someone’s performance may
improve in the future is not necessarily praise.
It was good that attendance was reasonably good. The lady next to me had trouble turning off
her cell phone in the beginning, and a gentleman a few seats over stood and yelled
at her – completely unnecessary.
We drove in, and again had Chinese takeout in the car.
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