Faust

by Charles-Francois Gounod, libretto Jules Barbier and Michel Carré

seen at Covent Garden on 11 April 2019

Dan Ettinger conducted this revival of David McVicar's 2004 production of Gounod's Faust with Michael Fabiano in the title role, Erwin Schrott as Méphistophélès and Mandy Fredrich as Marguerite - standing in for an indisposed Irina Lungu who in turn was replacing Diana Damrau. 

McVicar and designer Charles Edwards set their production in the heyday of the grand opera tradition, the Second Empire in France, rather than in the late middle ages. The result is that the dubious sexual politics of the time, and the casual exploitation of the poor woman by the rich dilettante, brings the often sentimentalised theme of Faust's seduction of Marguerite out of the quaint past into more recent and troubling times - it is the end of the Second Empire, with the Franco-Prussian War looming to the Marguerite's soldier brother away, and bring him back embittered and powerless to protect or avenge his sister. Faust and the Devil are invariably in expensive evening dress for much of this sorry tale, while Marguerite clearly lives in one of the working-class, not to say slum, areas of Paris. The point is hammered home even more sharply in the Witches' Sabbath sequence which becomes a parody of the tradition in the Paris Opera House of Jockey Club members turning up late in a performance to ogle the obligatory ballet dancers before going back-stage to demand (and pay for) their favours.

It's a clever conceit, well thought out with the fragment of an ornate proscenium arch on one side of the stage, and some gothic arches enclosing organ pipes on the other, providing constant visual reminders of the unhealthy mix of hedonism and religiosity surrounding much high-class 19th century hypocrisy. The danger is that the depiction of the Devil can be somewhat trivialised, and Erwin Schrott sometimes looked more of a melodramatic or pantomime villain than the embodiment of eternal corruption and evil.

Michael Fabiano sang lyrically in the great passionate outbursts of finer feeling, and was excellently complemented by the darker tones of Erwin Schrott as his nemesis. Mandy Fredrich, brought in at extremely short notice for this first night of the current revival, had a pure and clear voice ideal for the naivety of Marguerite, though perhaps lacking the strength to do full justice to the space of Covent Garden. The supporting cast and chorus were good, but the overall experience lacked the ultimate pitch of excitement that a truly great performance would create. It might be that first-night nerves were a bit further rattled by the emergency cast change.