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Salvation by suicide! Toronto
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
10/11/2024 - & October 13, 16, 18, 24, 27, November 2, 2024
Charles Gounod : Faust
Long Long (Faust), Guanqun Yu*/Ariane Cossette (Marguerite), Kyle Ketelsen (Méphistophélès), Szymon Mechlinski (Valentin), Thibault de Damas (Wagner), Alex Hetherington (Siebel), Megan Latham (Dame Marthe)
Canadian Opera Company Chorus, Sandra Horst (chorus master), Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Johannes Debus (conductor)
Amy Lane (Stage Director), Emma Ryott (Sets & Costumes), Charlie Morgan Jones (Lighting Designer), Tim Claydon (Choreography)
L. Long, G. Yu (© Michael Cooper)
It’s hard to believe that Faust (1859) was once among opera’s most popular works. New York’s Metropolitan Opera was inaugurated in 1883 with a performance of Faust (in German). It was so often performed there that the Met was nicknamed the Faustspielhaus. While it was never removed from circulation, it’s no longer frequently performed. The reason is neither the rarity of the voices required nor the difficulty in its staging. More likely is that, as conceived by Gounod and his librettists, it betrays the spirit of Goethe’s masterpiece and evokes more the bourgeois values of Napoleon III’s decadent Second French Empire. If performed conventionally, it’s too bourgeois and Catholic, and likely to bore the audience. Directors invent twists to replace banality with excitement. In this production, director Amy Lane’s vision was a lame attempt at fantasy with unsuccessful leaps into the horror genre.
The opening scene, where Méphistophélès appears to the old Faust, was a dull start, thanks to the exceedingly slow tempi chosen by conductor Johannes Debus and Lane’s odd staging. Faust is not in his usual study but rather seated in a garden. Méphistophélès’ appearance is neither dramatic nor surprising as he was standing in the background from the start. The transformation into a young man was one of the least effective I have ever seen. Chinese tenor Long Long’s deportment before and after the transformation were one and the same, which did not augur well. Fortunately, things improved. Long Long impressed with his beautiful lyric tenor, his ease in the upper register and stylish French singing, a major feat for a non‑native speaker. His “Salut! Demeure chaste et pure” was expressive, elegant and moving, despite the absence of a house (demeure) in front of which Faust is meant to sing. His acting was convincing and he managed to convey the character’s humanity, that of a hesitant and remorseful seducer.
Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu was a revelation as Marguerite. Endowed with a sweet lyric soprano, her voice is rich and warm, and her French diction excellent. Her Jewel Song, “Ah, je ris de me voir,” was vocally brilliant and her Spinning Wheel Song, “Il ne revient pas,” was appropriately sad and moving.
Lane thought it interesting to then introduce two performers, representing dancers in a music box, during the Jewel Song. Visually appealing thanks to their graceful movements and to Emma Ryott’s stylish Arlecchino and Colombina costumes, they were a major distraction. One could not help not looking at them instead of Marguerite. Lane is a director who thinks a solo aria centrestage is too dull, so she clutters the scene to create a distraction, hoping it will be interpreted as artful. This is unfortunate, as one would have liked to simply enjoy Yu’s expressive interpretation. The soprano beautifully conveyed the young woman’s initial timidity, her fascination with the jewels and her transformation into a regal character, once adorned with the precious stones. In the “Roi de Thulé” ballad that precedes the Jewel Song, Yu was supremely moving, and her affectionate narration conveyed Marguerite’s tender nature.
American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen was a magnificent Méphistophélès. Thanks to his excellent presence and acting, he was an appropriately devilish Méphistophélès, sinister yet charming: un vrai gentilhomme as he surmises in the opening scene. His first act aria, “Le veau d’or est toujours debout,” was vocally superb but somewhat diminished by the overly crowded stage. His Act III aria “Vous qui faites l’endormie” was wickedly ironic and delightful thanks to Ketelsen’s excellent diction and biting phrasing.
Sadly, the supporting cast was less brilliant than the leading roles. Polish baritone Szymon Mechlinski was vocally and dramatically more than adequate as Valentin. His diction was lacking, especially compared to the three leads. Despite an appealing voice, his “Avant de quitter ces lieux” was lackluster due to the non‑Gallic diction and style. It’s interesting to note that this aria was not in the original score. It was added to the 1864 London premiere in English as “Even bravest heart may swell” for the star baritone Charles Stanley (1834‑1922) and subsequently translated into French.
Mezzo Alex Hetherington was convincingly timid as Siebel. She managed to convince in this trousers role thanks to her boyish deportment. Her aria “Faites‑lui mes aveux” was touching. Megan Latham was inadequate as Dame Marthe due to her wobbly voice as well as her sub‑par diction. However, she managed to ably portray the mature matron and provided comic relief with her cart of pastries.
The chorus was well rehearsed, though “Ainsi que la brise légère” was far from festive due to Lane’s staging. The Soldiers’ chorus, “Gloire immortelle de nos aïeux,” was sung with better diction than the former. The choreography in both was interesting. In the latter, the soldiers were put under a spell that made them adopt drolly effeminate movements instead of virile, military ones. They finished in a frantic can‑can, Méphistophélès’ parody of military authority. Debus appropriately led the orchestra at a frenetic tempo for the finale.
Lane chose a chessboard and stairwell for sets throughout the performance. The former alludes to the games that Faust is to play with Méphistophélès, though we don’t see much maneuvering by Faust in the staging, especially at the end, where Faust does not seem to outwit Méphistophélès. The stairwell, shaped like a twisted spine, spirals up to Heaven or down to Hell. The X‑ray of a lung is the background image, alluding to an old man’s ailing health and debilitated condition. These may be interesting ideas, but when executed do not suffice as sets for the entire opera. Gone is old Faust’s study, Marguerite’s house, the town kermesse, the church and the prison cell. These were replaced with the stairwell. Economical certainly, but artistically uninspired.
The most irritating aspect of Lane’s conception was her relentless obsession with filling the stage. This was both needless and distracting. The merchants’ costumes at the kermesse were amusing: huge hats representing the goods they sold, fruit, ham, wine, cheese and cutlery. This was the only successful crowding of the stage, though it rendered Méphistophélès’ “Le veau d’or est toujours debout” less effective.
The invention of two female assistants to Méphistophélès was another of Lane’s needless stage augmentations. Dressed as androgynous Weimar‑era dancers inspired by the Sally Bowles character in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret (1972), the assistants were most effective in the kermesse scene, when one slits the wrist of the other to fill her glass of wine. However, they were an unnecessary distraction in the other scenes.
Most offensive was the opera’s finale, when Marguerite rejects the idea of escaping her prison cell with Faust and Méphistophélès. In the libretto, she collapses, and her spirit rises to Heaven with a choir of angels singing “sauvée”. In Lane’s staging, Méphistophélès hands her the shard used to extract blood for Faust to sign his contract and for his assistant to extract wine from her veins. Marguerite chooses salvation by slitting her own wrist. A Marlene Dietrich lookalike in white cabaret‑attire appears, “a white angel,” if you like, and chases Méphistophélès and his assistants. I cannot imagine anything more antithetical to the moral of Gounod’s Faust: salvation by suicide.
Ossama el Naggar
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