What would you do differently if you had the power to live life again? Gounod’s Faust is an opera of hugely ambitious scope: life, madness, intoxication, love, war, seduction, abandonment, death, heaven and hell. Irish National Opera’s new production, with its powerful singing, clever staging and sets, makes for a compelling version.
The central idea informing Jack Furness’ staging of this opera is the chance to relive one’s youth and make different life choices the second time round. Set in the latter half of the 19th century, Furness seeks to portray the crisis of faith inherent in this work, besieged by scientific reality. For Furness, Faust is a sort of Oppenheimer-type character: a scientist whose life’s work has made instruments of war possible, something brought home by the bombs with his name on them. The hell which ultimately Faust is condemned too is a hell of his own making – a hell on earth where he desperately, but futilely, tries to repent of his discoveries. It is a plausible conception and for the most part it is a success.
Francis O’Connor’s set and costumes are terrifically inventive. The young Faust sports a jaunty tan-coloured suit, a brocaded waistcoat and a boater. Méphistophélès, as befits his key role, dons several outfits: a general’s uniform in scarlet or full morning dress with a red waistcoat, top hat and cane. Marguerite is a factory worker and so is consigned to a shapeless, fashionless grey habit. Late 19th-century British class distinctions are observed to good effect, while some of the soldiers coming back from the war with iron masks covering their wounds. The witches during the Walpurgis Night scene are cleverly transformed into nurses carrying syringes aloft in order to drug Faust into the oblivion of ecstasy.
Three smoking industrial-era chimney stacks form the backdrop to much of the opera, at times lowered to form huge cannons, one of which fires a loud shot with some pyrotechnics at the end of Act 4. The soldiers’ drinking song is wonderfully aided by Méphistophélès knocking off the tip of the bomb and wine comes gushing forth.
Sarah-Jane Shiels’ lighting is atmospheric, especially in the florescent floor of the prison scene, though there is an over-reliance on red lighting to suggest evil.
The opening night cast was uniformly strong. Duke Kim (Faust) possesses a pleasing tenor voice that opened up wonderfully from Act 2 onwards, his aria “Salut, demeure chaste et pure” like liquid gold, while his love duet with Jennifer Davis’ Marguerite was utterly captivating. Kudos goes to the actor Nick Dunning who played the older Dr Faust with aplomb and who appeared at strategic moments during the opera.
If Faust is the eponymous hero/villain, it was the Méphistophélès of Nicholas Brownlee, with his commanding stage presence, who dominated the show. Oozing charisma, his powerful voice boomed over even the most powerful orchestral moments. He sang his “Le Veau d'or” with terrific vigour and his rasping enhanced the mockery of “Vous qui faites l’endormie”.
Davis really captured the innocence and sweetness of Marguerite, making her character utterly believable even during her madness. Her soprano took quite some time to warm up but by Act 5 the voice was soaring up to the top notes with ease. Her Jewel Song had an ingenuous quality to it while the ballade about the King of Thule was touchingly simple.
Gyula Nagy made for an excellent Valentin and both his trio with Faust and Méphistophélès and his dying moments were wonderfully dramatic. Gemma Ní Bhriain was a concerned and lovestruck Siébel, her mezzo-soprano ringing true and piteously with “Faites-lui mes aveux”.
The Irish National Opera Chorus was outstanding, singing with tremendous energy, whether as soldiers, factory workers, upper class bosses or demons.
Conductor Elaine Kelly kept a tight rein from start to finish and the Irish National Opera Orchestra responded to her warm direction. There were minor quibbles such as the opening rasp of the brass in the introduction was slightly off, or needing more fulsome strings in Siebel’s tender aria, but on the whole, the orchestra played with great gusto.
