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Berlioz's
majestic oratorio makes for a stunning season opener |
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La Damnation de FaustDramatic Legend in
four parts by
Kent Nagano,
conductor Performance of Wednesday, September 10, 2003 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion All photos by ROBERT MILLARD, courtesy of Los Angeles Opera
LOS ANGELES, CA – The eighteenth season of the Los Angeles Opera opened on Wednesday with a stirring rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner – a poignant remind of the tragic events from two years ago, which robbed not only the opera’s opening night, but also the nation’s innocence as a whole. Life, like the show, must go on, even in the face of grave adversity and military quagmire. The prevailing mood of the star-studded crowd (the Hollywood set intermingling with the musical elite) that descended on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was that of subdued jubilance.
Jubilant it ought to be. For the new, expanded season marks the first time in 18 years that the Los Angeles Opera becomes the sole tenant of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, unencumbered by the physical constraints of sharing space with the Philharmonic, which will play next month at the resplendent new Walt Disney Concert Hall across the street. To boot, this visually stunning season opener celebrates the 200th birthday of maverick French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1868), whose brilliant orchestration calls for, and gets, the virtuosic Technicolor treatment that it deserves.
This is theatre director Achim Freyer’s second production for Los Angeles. The first, last year’s J.S. Bach’s Mass in B-Minor, was a mixed affair. The religiosity in Bach’s music is more spiritual than theatrical, and does not lend itself well to staged presentation. Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust, on the other hand, is a dramatic tour de force that does not do well in a concert performance. The ravishing, painterly swath of red hue in the Marguerite-Mephistopheles scene, the misshapen gnomes in the nightmarish tavern scene (reminiscent of the Welsh National Opera’s “Hansel and Gretel”), the military pantomime during the Hungarian march (by the Achim Freyer Ensemble) – all conjure up visions as radical as Berlioz’s music was to his contemporaries. Freyer’s consistently inspired scenic paintings capture Berlioz’s (opium-induced?) vision to a tee.
Vocally, this “Faust” is to die for. Tenor Paul Groves’ singing as the eponymous hero had the requisite lyrical grace and burnished tone that made Faust’s aria in Part 3 unbearably moving. Mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves might not sound as innocent as one would wish in Marguerite’s King of Thule aria, but the smoldering sensuality she brought to “D’amour l’ardente flamme” made one’s head swoon. Bass Samuel Ramey was his usual devilish self and gave a mesmerizing portrayal of Méphistophélès that is unmatched today. Only bass-baritone James Creswell’s ultra-smooth singing as Brander failed to project the role’s coarse energy. Kent Nagano, in his new position as the company’s Music Director, gave an eminently satisfying reading that was powerfully driven (in the final madcap galloping into the abyss) and gloriously sublime (the English horn obbligato in Marguerite’s aria). The Los Angeles Opera Chorus, as well as the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, all sang admirably. If Los Angeles is poised to move up the ranks as America’s new cultural capital, as many believe, it could not have picked a better vehicle than “La Damnation de Faust” – a true musical and visual stunner. Do not miss it!
Remaining dates for La Damnation de Faust are September 13,
15, 21, 24 (the last two conducted by Placido Domingo).
Tickets range from $25 to $160 on weeknights and $30 to $170 on
weekends. (213) 972-8001
Truman C. Wang is editor of Classical Voice.
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