SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Robert Schumann, Szenen aus Goethes Faust:  (new production) Soloists, chorus, ballet and orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Parma/Donato Renzetti conductor  Parma, Italy.  16.1.2008 (MM)

Goethe's Faust is a two-part play intended to be read, not staged, though in 2002 it was staged by Peter Stein within a mere twenty-one hours.  Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust is an oratorio meant to be performed in concert, unstaged again, although its seven scenes were staged at the Teatro by Hugo de Ana in three long hours.

Robert Schumann was not an opera composer, though we learn from the Teatro Regio's program booklet that he did compose one opera, Genoveva, an experimental, recitative-less work that has been presented in recent times by Palermo's Teatro Massimo.  Strange, this Italian preoccupation with Schumann. 

So Schumann is unknown operatic territory, as is Goethe's Faust Book II (1832).  We do know a bit of Book I (1806) from Berlioz (1846), Gounod (1859) and Boito (1868) though it is an accepted sacrilege to associate these derivative masterpieces with the real Goethe Faust.  But Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust are simply that, the actual Goethe verses; the first three briefer scenes are from Book I, the final four scenes, longer and more involved come from Book II, meaning that the larger part of the work is uncharted territory for audiences and for this critic as well, probably among most others.

A pristinely Romantic spirit, Schumann, like Schubert and Woyzeck's Buchner and maybe Bellini and Chopin, had a relatively brief, disturbed and unhappy life.  All of these early nineteenth century Romantic geniuses worked best in small or closed, often programmatic forms.  Scenes from Goethe's Faust were not composed as a musical unity - much less a larger dramatic unity -but as separate, brief segments written in mostly backwards order over ten or so years.

Yet for us in the theater there was a beginning, middle and end to the performance, though we struggled to make it so, having only producer Hugo de Ana's staging to help us.  Mr. de Ana worked with basic solutions, in the first scene personalizing Goethe's Faust to become Schumann himself with Clara Schumann seated at a grand piano as Gretchen, though this conceit was then abandoned.  The following scenes were either blatantly straightforward as for example the realistic cathedral where Gretchen prays, or else symbolic like the huge projected compass (drafting tool) for the palace where Faust envisions his grandiose earthly projects.  Faust expiates his remorse for Gretchen's death in a fantastical, silver lighted forest (silver is the word used by Goethe) with the elves and spirits of the large chorus dressed in large, light reflecting, silver robes.  The final scene representing celestial perfection was made by the large chorus alternately holding or sitting on small, lighted boxes, while a cherubim encased in larger plastic box descended from above from time to time.

Thus we had only Goethe's words to guide us through the evening, with Book II being famously abstract and difficult, and here made more so by Schumann's use of truncated and non-consecutive tracts. For synthesis of word and music we had to rely on Faust, Mephistopheles, Gretchen and various symbolic characters to bring these scenes to life.  Gretchen is not a large presence in Schumann (or Goethe), and thus the small scale performance by Daniela Bruera was adequate.  Mephistopheles does loom large in Schumann's scenes, and a huge, dynamic presence would have been helpful in simulating a dramatic action.  Michele Pertusi delivered a Mephistopheles that would have been convincing in an oratorio rendering of the work, but missed grounding the role on the operatic stage.  Faust himself, Markus Werba, began the evening as too young and too green a Faustian presence, and soon lost his voice besides so that an extra intermission was taken to give time to organize cuts in the score, notably Faust's death monologue.  For the rest of the evening Mr. Werba made some sounds, mouthed most lines particularly in the higher tessitura - therefore at the more dramatic points – and yet beautifully enacted several sublime moments.

These were  made sublime in part because there were no words.  The Schumann orchestra sang out the Faustian condition instead with Faust himself physically embodying these inspired musical utterances - particularly at his death, in his embrace of the physical world, and ultimately at his apotheosis. The Schumann score in the hands of conductor Donato Renzetti was in heartfelt coincidence with these Faustian postures.

Hugo de Ana is a brilliant designer, and an obviously extraordinarily expensive one. Schumann's overture was accompanied by a stunning vision of heavenly bodies flying through the solar system.  His use of projections and lasers through out the evening was spectacular, with massive physical scenery intermixed as well, in an onslaught of visual images that overwhelmed the simplicity and integrity of Schumann's music.  Mr. de Ana's costuming was confusing too, combining abstracted flapper era evening dress with costumes appropriate to timeless legends, many of the costumes with fantastical flourishes that would wow in a Las Vegas show but seemed vulgar in the Teatro Regio.

Schumann's musical impetus is ephemeral, even momentary, and his sound is uniquely transparent  and curiously unobtrusive while remaining gloriously lyrical.  Mr. de Ana's shapes are volumetric and huge, and always beautiful.  His concepts are basic, straightforward and literal.  But slice it how you want, Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust remains an oratorio not an opera.

Michael Milenski

Pictures © Teatro Regio di Parma


Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page