Faust (opera)
Faust | |
---|---|
Opera by Charles Gounod | |
Other title | Margarethe or Gretchen |
Librettist | |
Language | French |
Based on | Faust et Marguerite by Michel Carré |
Premiere | 19 March 1859 Théâtre Lyrique, Paris |
Website | Profile at Opera-Online.com |
Faust is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One. It debuted at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris on 19 March 1859, with influential sets designed by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry, Jean Émile Daran, Édouard Desplechin, and Philippe Chaperon.
Performance history
The original version of Faust employed spoken dialogue, and it was in this form that the work was first performed. The manager of the Théâtre Lyrique, Léon Carvalho cast his wife Caroline Miolan-Carvalho as Marguerite and there were various changes during production, including the removal and contraction of several numbers.[1] The tenor Hector Gruyer was originally cast as Faust but was found to be inadequate during rehearsals, being eventually replaced by a principal of the Opéra-Comique, Joseph-Théodore-Désiré Barbot, shortly before the opening night.[1]
After a successful initial run at the Théâtre Lyrique the publisher Antoine Choudens, who purchased the copyright for 10,000 francs, took the work (now with recitatives replacing the spoken dialogue) on tour through Germany, Belgium, Italy and England, with Caroline Miolan-Carvalho repeating her role.[1]
Performances in Germany followed, with the Dresden Semperoper in 1861 being the first to bill the work as Margarethe rather than Faust. For many years this custom – or alternatively, staging the opera as Gretchen – continued in Germany. Some sources claim this was out of respect for part 1 of Goethe's poetic drama, which the opera follows closely.[1] Others claim the opposite: that the retitling was done to emphasise Gounod's opera's reliance on Goethe's characters, and to differentiate it from Louis Spohr's Faust, which had held the stage for many years in Germany and had recently appeared (1851) in a three-act revision. It is also possible that the 1861 Dresden title change was out of respect for Spohr's close and long association with the city.[2]
The opera was given for the first time in Italy at
In 1869 a ballet had to be inserted (into the first scene of the final act) before the work could be played at the Opéra: it became the most frequently performed opera at that house.[1] With the change from spoken dialogue to sung recitatives, plus the musical and balletic additions, the opera was thus finally transformed into a work following the conventions of grand opera.[3]
It was Faust with which the Metropolitan Opera in New York City opened for the first time on 22 October 1883. It is the eighth most frequently performed opera there, with 753 performances through the 2012–2013 season.[4] It was not until the period between 1965 and 1977 that the full version was performed (and then with some minor cuts), and all performances in that production included the Walpurgisnacht ballet.[5]
A recording was made in 2018 of the 1859 version, by Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset, which endeavoured to present the opera as first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique "closer in kinship to the traditional opéra comique in its interleaving of musical numbers with spoken passages". The recording, produced by Bru Zane, featured Véronique Gens, Benjamin Bernheim and Andrew Foster-Williams in principal roles.[6]
Roles
Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 19 March 1859 Conductor: Adolphe Deloffre[7] |
---|---|---|
Faust, a philosopher and metaphysician | tenor | Joseph-Théodore-Désiré Barbot |
Méphistophélès, a familiar spirit of Hell | bass-baritone | Mathieu-Émile Balanqué |
Marguerite, a young maiden | soprano | Caroline Miolan-Carvalho |
Valentin, a soldier and Marguerite's brother | baritone | Osmond Raynal |
Wagner, friend of Valentin | baritone | M. Cibot |
Siebel, a youth in love with Marguerite | soprano (breeches role/travesti) |
Amélie Faivre |
Marthe Schwerlein, Marguerite's guardian | mezzo-soprano or contralto | Duclos |
Young girls, labourers, students, soldiers, burghers, matrons, invisible demons, church choir, witches, queens and courtesans of antiquity, celestial voices |
Synopsis
- Place: Germany
- Time: 16th century
Act 1
Faust's cabinet
Act 2
At the city gates
A chorus of students, soldiers and villagers sings a drinking song ("Vin ou Bière"). Valentin, leaving for war with his friend Wagner, entrusts the care of his sister Marguerite to his youthful friend Siebel ("O sainte médaille ... Avant de quitter ces lieux"). Méphistophélès appears, provides the crowd with wine, and sings a rousing, irreverent song about the golden calf ("Le veau d'or"). Méphistophélès predicts Wagner will not return from the war and maligns Marguerite, and Valentin tries to strike him with his sword, which shatters in the air. Valentin and friends use the cross-shaped hilts of their swords to fend off what they now know is an infernal power (chorus: "De l'enfer"). Méphistophélès is joined by Faust and the villagers in a waltz ("Ainsi que la brise légère"). Marguerite appears and Faust declares his admiration, but she refuses Faust's arm out of modesty, a quality that makes him love her even more.
Act 3
Marguerite's garden
The
Act 4
Marguerite's room / A public square outside her house / A cathedral
[Note: The scenes of act 4 are sometimes given in a different order and portions are sometimes shortened or cut in performance.][8] After being made
Act 5
The Harz mountains on Walpurgis Night / A cavern / The interior of a prison
Méphistophélès and Faust are surrounded by
Ballet
Although the Walpurgisnacht ballet sequence from act 5 is usually omitted from modern staged performances of Faust, it is frequently performed separately as a concert work or part of a ballet program, e.g. George Balanchine's Walpurgisnacht Ballet.[10]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Huebner 1992
- ^ Boder, Wolfram Die Kasseler Opern Louis Spohrs, Musikdramaturgie im sozialen Kontext (Kassel 2006)
- ^ Schwarm, Betsy. "Faust". britannica.com.
- ^ Repertory Report, up to 5 April 2013
- ^ The Met database (archives)[not specific enough to verify]
- ^ Loppert, Max. CD review: Faust, Gounod. Opera, February 2020, Vol. 71, No. 2, pp. 242–244.
- ISBN 978-2213600178.
- ^ The description given here follows the order of the scenes as performed in the original production at the Théâtre Lyrique (Walsh 1981, p. 100) and as described in the plot summaries written by Huebner 1992, pp. 133–134; Huebner 2001, p. 337.
- ^ Barbier & Carré 1859, p. 72.
- ^ Martin, John (24 August 1947). "New Works for Ballet Russe". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
Sources
- Barbier, Jules; Carré, Michel (1859). Faust (libretto). Paris: Michel Lévy Frères.
- Huebner, Steven (1992). "Faust (ii)". In ISBN 978-1-56159-228-9.
- Huebner, Steven (2001). "Charles Gounod". In ISBN 978-0-14-051475-9.
- ISBN 978-0-7145-3659-0.
External links
- Libretto (in English)
- Synopsis (in German, English, French, Italian), libretto (in German, English, French)
- Faust: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Visual documentation of the premiere and later Parisian performances of Faust on Gallica.
- "Mon coeur est penetre d'epouvante" (My heart is overcome with terror), from act 5. Enrico Caruso with Geraldine Farrar. Recorded in 1910. Victor catalog #89033. Restoration by Bob Varney; archive.com. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
- San Diego OperaTalk! with Nick Reveles: Gounod's Faust
- "Avant de quitter ces lieux" on (director)
- Online opera guide on Gounod's Faust, synopsis, commentary, music analysis, anecdotes