The Damnation of Faust – review

Despite the full-scale theatrical productions it now receives – Terry Gilliam's for ENO in 2011 being a notable example – Berlioz's Damnation of Faust was neither intended as an opera nor presented as such during the composer's lifetime. Yet even when played as a concert piece, and despite its odd proportions and a distinctly episodic structure, its material remains vividly dramatic, as if conceived – as Berlioz authority David Cairns suggested in his programme note for this LSO performance – for "an ideal stage of the imagination". What registered as disappointing, therefore, in this second instalment of Valery Gergiev's Berlioz series, was that so much of the score felt insufficiently characterised.

Partly this was a result of Gergiev's underplaying of the heightened individuality of Berlioz's writing. In both private and public scenes – on the one hand Faust's lonely contemplations, or the deserted Marguerite's melancholy, and on the other the flamboyant bellicosity of the Hungarian March or the terrifying headlong dash of the Ride to the Abyss – the quirky brilliance of the composer's gestures and their endlessly inventive colouristic range seemed toned down. Despite solid work from the orchestra and finely disciplined singing from the London Symphony Chorus, some of the sheer electricity of Berlioz's repeated flashes of imagination was missing.

The soloists' contributions, too, were uneven, though Florian Boesch had the full measure of Brander. Michael Spyres's Faust was nicely scaled and broadly lyrical, but he lacked a strong sense of individual identity and his top register was less than ideally firm. As Marguerite, Olga Borodina's vocalism was unwieldy and too highly flavoured to suggest the character's innocence and vulnerability. Mirco Palazzi offered some of the brimstone needed for Mephistopheles, if not quite enough depth and power to create a full-scale demonic presence.