“Faust” Falls Flat

New productions at the Metropolitan Opera always garner much attention, and many provoke controversy amongst opera lovers everywhere. The Met’s new production of Gounod’s Faust was no exception, and because of the choice to update this medieval tale to the 20th century, much speculation surrounded its premiere. The stellar line-up of principal singers under the guidance of a youthful and energetic conductor and a production by an award-winning theater director seemed to position this Faust as a promising addition to the Met’s repertoire. However, after attending the December 20th performance, I came away disappointed by inconsistencies found throughout the evening.

An image of Marina Poplavskaya pojected onto the show curtain of "Faust"

Coming off a heroic run as Siegmund in the Met’s presentations of Wagner’s Die Walküre last season, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann took on the title character of the aging-scholar-turned-youthful-cad. The role requires an abundance of smooth, lyrical singing and light French tone – qualities absent from Mr. Kaufmann’s performance. His voice is a beautiful instrument, but his hefty, dark sound seemed inappropriate for the music of the title role. Furthermore, Mr. Kaufmann’s performance on this particular evening was marred by inconsistencies. He delivered many moments of velvety phrasing that caused the whole audience to melt, but on other occasions he gracelessly attacked lines and high notes. Because of the almost baritonal quality of his singing, any contrast between Mr. Kaufmann’s sound and the other male vocal lines was lost. I have much respect for Mr. Kaufmann and believe him a great interpreter of the heavier roles in the tenor repertoire, but I feel that the role of Faust is not a natural fit for this talented performer.

Below is an excerpt of Jonas Kaufmann’s performance of “Salut! Demeure chaste et pure”:

As the object of Mr. Kaufmann’s seduction, soprano Marina Poplavskaya – who divided Met audiences last season with performances in Verdi’s towering Don Carlo and classic La Traviata – delivered a committed portrayal of the innocent Marguerite. “Impulsive” is a word that best captures the essence of Ms. Poplavskaya’s craft, for she completely adopts a new persona onstage. All of Ms. Poplavskaya’s actions seemed natural as she totally embodied her character, and her voice was well suited for the role’s varied music. Unfortunately, her no-holds-bar style took a heavy toll on her singing in the latter parts of the opera. Here Ms. Poplavskaya forced her singing – a few times going slightly flat on top notes. I will continue to enjoy Ms. Poplavskaya’s appearances, for she consistently delivers compelling portrayals, even if she sometimes sacrifices vocal beauty in the process.

Mariana Poplavskaya as Marguerite sings the “Jewel Song” from Gounod’s Faust:

The most polished and balanced performance of the evening came from veteran bass René Pape as Méphistophélès. His pure, rich sound allowed him to comfortably deliver the role’s diverse and challenging music. Mr. Pape’s suave and charming Méphistophélès swaggered around the stage with ease and confidence, though at times, especially during larger crowd scenes, Mr. Pape’s acting bordered on camp. However, the blame for this likely falls upon the director rather than this accomplished artist.

A portion of the first act duet between Faust (Jonas Kaufmann) and Méphistophélès (René Pape):

As Marguerite’s noble brother Valentin, baritone Russell Braun sang with gorgeous tone throughout the evening and contributed a beautiful “Avant de quitter ces lieux” in the second act. As Siebel, mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier sang with nice, lyric tone and easily portrayed the character’s youthful demeanor. Both Theodora Hanslowe as Marguerite’s nosey neighbor Marthe (replacing Wendy White, who was injured in a prior performance) and Jonathan Boyer as Wagner both contributed to the performance with strong appearances.

The orchestra and chorus under the direction of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin –a French-Canadian conductor in his mid-thirties – exhibited their trademark proficiencies. Maestro Nézet-Séguin imbues a natural energy into every performance, and this quality is manifest in the explosive playing he evokes from his musicians. This quality breathes life into each performance, but on this occasion Maestro Nézet-Séguin tended to cover the singers in the early moments of the opera and took some time to relax into a comfortable relationship between the pit and the stage.

An excerpt from the third act love duet:

The truly noteworthy aspect of this evening’s performance was the production by Tony award-winning director Des McAnuff. The production was framed as a flashback in the mind of the title character as he commits suicide by poison. Mr. McAnuff places the story between the beginning of the First World War and the detonation of the atomic bomb nearly thirty years later, and the aging Faust is characterized as a scientist working on the nuclear Manhattan Project – in fact the whole production takes place in a laboratory. On the surface, the concept seemed a fresh re-imagining of the classic tale, but the execution proved insufficient at realizing this well-intentioned goal. Overall, it seemed that the production team tried too hard to be clever, resulting in a stage often cluttered to the point of distraction. Burn victims carrying bomb components,villagers convulsing rhythmically, jarring camera flashes, and random bursts of white and green light – These are but a few of the many production techniques which undermined the unique concept. With alterations and editing, this production has the potential to be an ingenious take on the classic opera, but in its current state, this approach does not ably showcase the merits of Gounod’s opera.

Faust continues its run at the Met through January 19, though some of the singers mentioned in this post are no longer with the production (most notably Mr. Kaufmann and Mr. Pape), and encore presentation of the December 10th “Live in HD” broadcast can be seen on January 11th in the United States and on February 4th and 27th in Canada.

For a full photo gallery of this production of Faust click here, and please check out director Des McAnuff discussing his production.

If you have questions or comments about this performance of Gounod’s Faust please feel free email me at cbrowner@taftschool.org