Armed with lots of water and lots of throat lozenges, I went yesterday to my first Met simulcast of the year to see La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz. A couple of months ago I woke from a nap to hear La symphonie fantastique playing on the radio and wondered if I had woken to a dream. Berlioz does that to you. La Damnation de Faust is another fantastic piece, called a "dramatic legend in four parts" by its composer, who never intended it to be staged. Opera companies all over the world, however, have been doing that for well over a century.
Yesterday's production starred the marvelous Susan Graham as Marguerite, the lovesick young woman who is sentenced to death for killing her mother, the lyrical Marcello Giordani as the tortured Faust, and the very sardonic John Relyea as Mephistopheles. When interviewed backstage at intermission, Relyea took off the feathered cap he was saddled with and looked even more devilishly attractive. (He's also got a great voice.) The work makes much use of the chorus. Once again, the Met chorus was outstanding. They have been a mainstay of many of the Met simulcasts I have seen in the past couple of years. Hats off to them and their leader.
Faust unfolds in dreamlike sequences, starting on the plains of Hungary, with the dramatic Rackoczy march, morphing to the aged Faust's encounter with the devil, then to a drinking scene and on to his first glimpse of Marguerite. That happens as Faust is in a boat with the devil. The boat tips over and Faust plunges to the watery depth where he does a water dance with a sprite. Later in the sequence he sees Marguerite and falls in love. Eventually the two lovers come together. When Faust learns that Marguerite has inadvertently poisoned her mother and is condemned to hang, he signs his soul over to the devil. The wild ride to save Marguerite from hanging ends with Faust falling down to hell, consigned to the princes of the underworld. The opera ends with the redeemed Marguerite climbing a ladder to heaven.
Scenes shift with the logic of dream sequences and a lot of other things happen along the way. Yesterday's production was by Robert Lepage, who used video projections that changed in response to the singers' sound, heat, and movement. The set was a four-tiered grid, divided into 24 boxes. One of the dramatic uses of the grid was to show Hungarian soldiers marching off to war as their loved ones bade them farewell. Two tiers had soldiers marching backwards sandwiched between women walking forwards while waving good-bye. When Mephistopheles summons his evil sprites to bewitch Marguerite, each box was taken up by a lissome dancer, performing in a frenzy.
The screen, which was behind the grid, changed in myriad ways. At one point the soldiers were shown plowing through grass that parted before them as they went off to death. When Marguerite sings the famous aria about her love for Faust, her image appears behind her wavering and changing and finally engulfed in flames. The boat scene with Faust and Mephistopheles, too, hinged on seamless use of video projection.
I loved the production but think I would have to see it several more times truly to appreciate it. For the most part Lepage's incredible use of art and technology worked to tie the opera together but there were times when I had the feeling I was missing the music. Then there is the music, at once wild and restrained, which I would now like to hear again just on its own. I would also like to see the production in the opera house, where it would be seen unedited.
Once again, a big thanks to the Metropolitan Opera for continuing this knock-out series! It didn't cure my cold but it improved my outlook.
