Customer Reviews

Faust-Comp Opera

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Naxos deserve the gratitude of opera lovers for re-issuing Beecham's recording from the late 1940s of Gounod's opera "Faust" at super budget price. Beecham was a great champion of this opera. He recorded it twice. This latter recording appeared towards the end of the 78s era and has been generally neglected ever since. Critics and reviewers have occasionally referred to it, citing the fact that Beecham displayed his usual uncanny feel for the right spirit and right letter of the score, perceptions which subsequent conductors have sometimes lacked. Beecham is certainly the great drawcard here. Rarely has the orchestral part of the score sounded so brilliant. He draws fine work from the Royal Philharmonic Chorus too, achieving wonderful swagger and excitement in the choruses that open Act 2 and the second scene of Act 4. Of the singers, their primary claim is that they are all native French exponents of their roles, all but the one who sings the small part of Martha. Georges Nore is generally satisfactory as Faust, confidant and assured vocally in his big aria but later miss-hitting a few notes in the Garden Scene. The baritone Roger Bourdin commands attention and admiration, even though his aria (added by Gounod after the original production of the opera) is omitted from this recording. The same cannot be said for Geori Boue as Margeurite. The joys and sorrows of Margeurite's life don't seem to involve her as an actress and the thrilling moments of the Jewel Song and the final Trio don't seem to interest her as a singer. As for Roger Rico as Mephistofeles, he is far too bland and genial. We must be able to hear the hidden, sinister, devilish dimension in the singer of this role, but Rico never provides it. Ward Marston's transfers bring everything that can be heard well forward and comfortably audible, Keith Anderson provides a brief but occasionally inelegant synopsis, track by track, in the accompanying booklet, the ballet music is not here, and the playing time is 137 minutes.

This is a great conductor's perfectly plausible performance which just happens to sound wrong. Wrong, that is, in comparison with every subsequent recording and just about every subsequent performance. It seems too cool, too bland. It strives for too much . . . elegance.

What it most singularly lacks is a howling, roaring, spitting Mephistopheles--that very Russian snarler of the Chaliapin-type who industriously and entertainingly tears every passion to tatters. While that sort of roaring demon is wholly appropriate for Boito's Italianate take on the story, I am inclined to think it is not what the very French Gounod had in mind. Gounod's "Faust" (or "Marguerite" as the Germans huffily prefer to think of it) is not Goethe's philosophical redemption story but a seduction story--not that of Marguerite by Faust, indeed, but of Faust by Mephistopheles. If you look at the words and the musical lines and forget the familiar performances, Mephistopheles is a suave, even lyrical seducer. I believe that Gounod, on hearing this recording, might well have said, "Yes, that is what I intended."

The performing edition used by Beecham is generally a satisfactory one to my ears. After all, who really wants to hear that endless, bloodless Brocken scene ever again? However, the omission of Valentine's big song (written for the London premiere to give a bonbon to an English baritone) is a real loss, a triumph of dry musical scholarship over musical commonsense.

This is a studio recording in mono sound appropriate to its age, not bad overall.

I give this one four stars for the conductor and what I take to be its authenticity. I recommend this as a second or later "Faust" to serve as an antidote to current performance tradition.