Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust: (concert performance) Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Choristers of Llandaff Cathedral Choir, Carlo Rizzi, conductor, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, 19.05.2007 (GPu)

Faust: Gregory Kunde
Mephistopheles: Alastair Miles
Marguerite: Ann Murray
Brander: David Soar
Soprano: Claire Hampton

In Scene XVI of La Damnation de Faust, Faust ends his hymn to Nature by representing his words as expressive of “le désir / D’un coeur trop vaste et d’une âme altérée / D’un bonheur que la fuit”. That desire, that heart too big for its own good, that ever fugitive happiness, ever beyond reach – these are the hallmarks of Berlioz’s romantic reinscription of the figure of Faust. His libretto, based of course on Goethe, was the work of Gérard de Nerval, Almire Gandonnière and the composer himself; it is richly expressive of so many of the characteristics of romanticism, a version of that movement’s particular version of the aspiration which contains the seeds of its own destruction. As such, this romantic Faust is not an inherently evil figure; he is damned, not so much by his immorality, as by the consequences of his own pained awareness of the gap between ideal and actual, by the discrepancy between his notion of human possibility and his experience. Insofar as he embodies so many of the characteristics of romantic sensibility, her is a type of Berlioz himself.

Much of that was discernable in the performance of the American tenor Gregory Kunde (a lateish replacement for Massimo Giordano.)  Kunde has made a name in the bel canto repertoire and, lately, in Berlioz. Faust was obviously a role he knew well and in which he felt very comfortable. Early on there was a slightly pinched quality to his voice, but as he opened up there were many attractive tone colours, much intelligent reading of the text. His was a very involved and involving reading of the role. His voice is not perhaps especially powerful, but he deploys his vocal resources intelligently and sensitively. The sheer terror of isolation escaped him, but in most other regards this was a moving performance.

As Mephistopheles Alastair Miles was also singing a role he knows well. His vocal manner was appropriately sardonic, but he never entirely got beyond a rather stagy insidiousness. This has always seemed to me a particularly difficult role to bring off – make the character too ‘human; and that is, by definition, wrong; how can we begin to understand his motives, since they are not human motives? Milton didn't entirely solve the problem with his Satan in Paradise Lost and it is asking a lot for a singer to do so when working with an inferior text, however much Berlioz’ music helps him. Miles’ was a very decent attempt at the impossible – he was particularly impressive in Mephistopheles’ grimly charming serenade in Scene 12. His delivery of the line which closes that scene (“Allons voir roucouler nos tourtereaux”) was a delight, the repeated  'R' s rolled with disturbing relish.

Ann Murray was in particularly good voice as Marguerite, but it was hard not to wonder whether or not this was quite the right voice, however good, for the role. Her voice, a rich, full mezzo-soprano, was too mature to be entirely apt for the youthful innocence (however adventurous) of Marguerite. For all the subtlety of many of Murray’s vocal inflections and the power of much of her singing, there was, inescapably, a certain degree of mismatch. Murray’s understanding of text, always one of her strong points, was everywhere evident and her duet with Kunde in Scene 13 worked pretty well.

In his cameo role as Brander, singing the grotesque song of the Rat accidentally cooked, David Soar brought wit and exact vocal control to the task.

Throughout, the Orchestra and Chorus, for long one of the great merits of the WNO, were in fine form. The orchestra relished Berlioz’ vivid writing, whether in the Hungarian March, played with panache and fire or in the pastoral rustlings of some of the pastoral passages. Whether as the demons of Pandaemonium or the Celestial Spirits of Heaven, as gnomes and sylphs or dancing, gossiping peasants, the chorus were faultless, note-perfect and characterising without exaggeration; this, like so much of their work, did great honour to the efforts of their chorus master, Donald Nally.

For a conductor with such a well-developed for the operatic idiom, La Damnation de Faust is a work to be relished. That Carlo Rizzi loved the work was obvious from beginning to end, his energetic (and energising) conducting encouraging and sustaining soloists, orchestra and chorus alike; but Rizzi rarely allows energy and commitment to detract from precision and control and there was never any danger of that happening here. Rizzi, it seems to me, is a conductor whose virtues are still rather underestimated. Certainly his forthcoming departure as music director (he will continue to make appearances as a guest conductor) will be a real loss for WNO.

 

Glyn Pursglove