The ENO’s 2010/11 season exploded into life as their revival of Gounod’s opera Faust took to the Colisseum stage. Faust is one of the most enduring stories in popular mythology, and Goethe’s theatrical masterpiece, the dark fable of one mans wager with the devil. It has seen several operatic productions, including one that the ENO will stage next year – Berlioz’s The Damnation Of Faust. Gounod’s is one of the best known and most respected, with some of the most famous arias including The Soldier’s Chorus and the final three-part harmony between Faust, the devilish tempter Mephistopheles and Faust’s would-be beloved Marguerite.
This new production features high-class production values from the off. Set in the 1950s, it powerfully evokes an atmosphere of a world bordering on apocalyptic suicide, both complicit in and reflective of Faust’s dark musings, in thrall as he is to his own doom. The implication, in Broadway director Des McAnuff’s well judged conception of the opera, is that one man’s end seems almost ephemeral by comparison. But then this is a staging that offers near-constant innovation, occasionally verging on the flashy (Iain Paterson’s excellent Mephistopheles produces as many conjuring tricks from his immaculate cream suits as any cheap magician) but with some soaring visual and musical tapestry.
As Faust, Toby Spence – reputable for striking appearances in Candide and the The Rake’s Progress - copes with the often demanding central role, and is ably supported by Paterson and the aptly named Melody Moore as Faust’s romantic foil. The orchestra is conducted by the ever-excellent ENO music director Edward Gardiner, bringing depth and texture to Gounod’s score, and McAnuff’s visual coups de theatre (coups d’opera surely?) are never anything other than thrilling. If the rest of the ENO’s season maintains this level of quality, then opera patrons are in for a treat.
Until 16 October. www.eno.org
