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Leonardo Balada, Faust-bal: (World Premiere) Soloists, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. Coro del Teatro Real.Conductor: Jesús López Cobos.Teatro Real de Madrid. 16 & 20.2.2009 (JMI)

Direction. Joan Font (Les Comediants)
Sets and Costumes: Joan Guillén
Lighting: Albert Faura
Choreography: Xevi Dorca

Cast:

Faust-bal: Ana Ibarra/María Rodríguez.
Margarito: Gerhard Siegel/Eduardo Santamaría.
Mefistófeles: Tomas Tomasson/Lauri Vasar.
Amazona: Cecilia Díaz.
God: Stefano Palatchi
Judge: Fernando Latorre

Faust-bal is the fifth new opera by a Spanish composer to be produced since the Teatro Real opened its doors twelve years ago. This time the composer is Catalan Leonardo Balada, who has done most of his work so far in America, and from whom we saw last year (at the Teatro de la Zarzuela) Hangman, Hangman and The Town of Greed, which came as a pleasant surprise for many in the audience.

Leonardo Balada has a long relationship with writer Fernando Arrabal, who is a surrealist or, perhaps more accurately, an absurdist like Alfred Jarry whose Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, Pataphysician is probably an antecedent to this work. They have worked together before on projects related to the Spanish Civil war, but none of these came to fruition.

According to the notes in the programme it seems clear that the project was driven by Arrabal’s text. However, despite this,  Balada seems to have decided to create his music without too much consideration for the libretto.

To start at the beginning, everybody understands the name Faust in the title of the opera, but probably very few will understand the meaning of “Faust-bal”. In fact it is a way for Arrabal to create his own Faust by adding the syllable “bal”, which is formed by the three first letters of Balada and three last letters of Arrabal. This is one of the only things to be readily explained, as the libretto becomes difficult from this point. The plot of Faust-bal is based on the classical character Faust, but takes place in the third millennium in which the two principal characters' genders are switched. Faust is now Faust-bal, a beautiful woman of superior intellect and the only visible example of human goodness in a world dominated by violence. The opera is full of symbolism and contrasts, ranging from pure idealism to destruction by war, from the ironic to the grotesque, culminating in a tragic conclusion. Faust-bal is meant to be universal in its music and story without any particular ethnic associations.

Leonardo Balada has always seemed to me a composer who is way above his Spanish colleagues whose operas have been premiered at Teatro Real. His music is quite easy to understand and is readily accepted by most people. There is no question that we are talking about contemporary music, but I would like to emphasize two important aspects of this: first of all he does not write music in which the singers are his enemies, as so often happens with modern operas, and secondly his handling of choral music is probably the best part of the score. Despite the supposed universality of the plot, I suspect that Balada’s  biggest mistake in this instance may have been his choice of librettist because even if the opera were a huge success, it would be difficult to perform it outside of Spain because translating  Arrabal’s verses would be a complicated business: even in Spanish these verses rarely make much sense. 

As mentioned above Faust-bal is a girl, who personifies goodness, while Margarito (the Spanish male equivalent of Marguerite)  stands for the violence, war and evil that overwhelms the 3^rd millennium world. Mefistófeles moves the action, while God observes from on high watching what happens as he eats and  drinks. Faust-bal has an affair with Amazona, giving birth on stage to a child through cloning, and is sentenced to prison. She is later  freed by God who apparently eventually decides to get invloved. At the end, Margarito rapes  Faust-bal, who then dies and an army of  Amazons kills  Margarito.

Jesús López Cobos did a very good job conducting the opera and it was not an easy task.His orchestra was very disciplined in performing a score that was very difficult for them. The chorus was also very good:  there are many pages for them that are very demanding and they responded well to the challenge.

Joan Font’s production (Les Comediants) was also quite bright and pleasant to look at. The sets consist of two big staircases that meet at the centre, and the whole thing is crowned by a kind of vault from which God watches and enjoys the scene. The final confrontation between Faust and Margarito takes place on mobile elements, reminding me very much of what La Fura dels baus used in their last Ring in Valencia. Remarkable lighting and good use of extras and dancers completed a vivid production.

Faust-bal is not an opera which requires great singers, but the cast was, in general, well-suited to their roles. Ana Ibarra took the title role on the first night, and she did a good job despite her usual problems in the high part of the tessitura. María Rodriguez was also good on the second night, although she was not up to the same standard. Gerhard Siegel made a good Margarito, possibly the most demanding part in vocal terms, while Eduardo Santamaría suffered vocally and finished quite tired. Cecilia Diaz went almost  unnoticed as  Amazon and Stefano Palatchi was a rather substandard God. Tomas Tomasson was a good Mefistófeles with remarkable Spanish diction. In the second cast, Lauri Vasar (the alternative Mefistófeles) offered the best voice in the ensemble.

The opera lasted 90 minutes without intermission. When the curtain came down there was tepid applause and sonorous shouts of “This is a shame”. When López Cobos took his bow, after the singers, no more than half of the audience remained in the stalls. The reaction the following day was much better. There was warm applause then, no shouting, and people remained in their seats until the curtain came down.

José M Irurzun

<sup>Pictures © Javier del Real

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