Gounod's Faust last night. Don't know what it is about the opera season but the shows come thick and fast when they do come - Lady Macbeth of Mtensk is two weeks from now and then there are three in May - Luisa Miller, Elektra and La Traviata, which is in the week before Sugar's wedding so I probably won't have to miss it. Anyways, Faust was magnificent. Every bit of it - I've never seen such a well-staged opera, and it benefits from having a fantastic story too.
I'm not going to lie; I had a spell of wishing that Méphistophélès was being played by Paolo Szot, the uber-hot baritone I was foaming about in Carmen more than a year ago - make him really seductive-like. That probably wouldn't have occurred to me if Marguerite hadn't been played to a delightful turn by the same soprano who ham-fisted Michaela in the production where he was Escamillo. As Gigi said, she more than redeemed herself; she was lovely. With Tintin's Bianca Castafiore's signature song, "Je ris de me voir si belle dans le miroir" - my god, she was charming. She made a good madwoman, too.
Anyways, Méphistophélès - that was done by Egils Silins - not so seductive but wonderfully physical and believable. Dancing, obscene gesturing, the works. Nice strong current of post coitum animale triste through the production that doesn't always get the treatment it deserves in opera. Showed the realistically boring nature of naughty or illicit post coitus without being boring. Top fucking marks. Strongly reccommended.
5 commenti:
I would love to see Faust in opera form - I had to look Gounod up in Wikipedia..still so much I don't know about..
What's the best opera performance that you've ever been to?
Speaking of my wedding, you're still planning your own performance, aren't you?
Good luck this (?) weekend!
I'm not sure, Mel. In terms of enjoyment, it remains going to see The Barber of Seville on mushrooms back in our undergrad. In terms of a nearly-perfect sound-wise production, I guess Rigoletto in the Vienna opera house, but the staging there was quite crap.
Sugar, that depends on if I find a voice teacher wherever I go - I'd like to but I'll need some guidance before I feel capable of doing it right. I'll keep you up to speed on that. You wanted Ave Maria, right? Or something else?
Thanks Artemis - Sunday morning at 9 o'clock, say a little prayer for me . . .
I fully enjoyed Barber of Seville too, it was my first opera ever. I didn't partake of the mushrooms but it's still the most I ever enjoyed myself!
Yes - good luck this weekend!
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