Customer Reviews

Berlioz: La Damnation De Faust, Op. 24 ~ Nagano

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the field was already crowded with recordings of the Damnation of Faust when this one appeared in 1995, but it had some notable advantages that look even better fifteen years later. Kent Nagano was marching from success to success with his Opera Lyon forces, and he gathered a trio of outstanding vocal soloists. My preference is always for a French performance, even though Berlioz's masterpiece has become international. Moser has the first word as Faust, and Moser doesn't sound like a native French speaker, but as soon as the chorus enters, they add the perfect sound -- precise elegant, and nasal -- that I love in tis work. After all, this is Goethe filtered through Berlioz's sensibility, which isn't that far removed from his comic opera, Beatrice and Benedict despite the melancholy subject. Nagano keeps the pace quick and the accents sharp, adding even more to the special native feeling-- there's almost a fairy tale quality. If you want to hear a Faust that is light and sparkling much of the time, here it is.

Moser has the right heady tenor as well, and he was enough in his prime that the tone is steady and secure, while at the same time he projects heroically as Faust confronts his fate. Susan Graham was also in her youthful prime, the timbre being as close to Debussy's Melisande as Marguerite ever gets. the role really isn't a character the way Faust and Mephisto are but a pair of arias. graham is quite lovely in her Roi de Thule number (if only Nagano's barcarolle rhythm was stronger), and D'amour l'ardente flamme shows off her poise in sustaining the long line. In both numbers her vulnerability is touching. Mephisto steals the show if a charismatic singer stars in the role, and Nagano has one of the best in the veteran Jose Van Dam, whose voice seems untouched by time. He adopts just the right insinuating nasal tone, never blustering his way through the part, and if there's some lack in the humor department, Van Dam makes up for it in malice.

So, is this the best Gallic-sounding Faust? It falls just short of that -- Nagano is rather mild-mannered when the devil gallops Faust to Hell, and his ambitions are a touch modest throughout. Moser doesn't quite capture Faust's mounting despair, either. On those grounds, I'll stick with my two favorite French Fausts from Igor Markevitch and Myung-Whun Chung, both on DG. Even so, Nagaon's deserves a good deal of admiration.