Changing Taste
I saw Faust at the Met last night and if there was any doubt (and I didn't have any) it was perfectly clear that Rene Pape is the bass for our time. Everyone else was very good too (Brava Kris!).
Faust is an interesting case. When I first started going to the opera around (ahem) 30 years ago, it was fairly ubiquitous. I saw it several times at NewYork City Opera and it was regularly in the Met repertoire. It is well known that it was the opera that opened the Met and for years that house was known as the Faustspielhaus.
But more than any other standard opera it seems to have fallen from favor. I did a quick search of the Met database over the past 50 or so years and if these performance totals are any indication (and I think it is) , it is startling. From 1950-60, 88 performances; 1960-70, 62 performances; 1970-80, 41 performances; 1980-90, 13 performances and 1990-2000, 20 performances, while during the same period Aida averaged about 100 performances or more, a decade.
I think this is mirrored in the lack of complete recordings. The arkivmusic.com database lists only 20, the majority of which are "live recordings". Of the studio efforts the pickings are slim.
Faust was maybe the 3rd or 4th opera recording I owned, in the NLA Columbia/Metropolitan Opera version with Eleanor Steber, Eugene Conley and Cesare Siepi (who so deserved a better and more complete recording than this). The performance is perfectly fine, though Conley is a respectable, but not exciting tenor. It is actually amazing to think that two of the major Fausts of the 40s and 50s at the Met, Björling and DiStefano, both of whom are extensively documented in other roles, never commercially recorded this part. Thankfully live versions are available. DiStefano's diminuendo on the high C in Salut! has to be heard to be believed and I prefer Bj¨rling's earlier broadcast with Kirsten to the later one with Söderström (he transposes the high C a full step here). My benchmark performances are of course the set of excerpts with Caruso and Journet and the earliest commercial recording with Vezzani (whose timbre I find so interesting) and Journet again. I never really warmed to the De Los Angeles/Gedda versions, primarily because of Christoff.
I like Faust, but when it comes to it, I'm more puzzled by its earlier prominence than its current neglect. It is a great role for an overpowering bass and with nice arias for the soprano, tenor and bass, but as a dramatic piece it falls fairly flat. For me the highlight is the church scene, if it is committedly done. The final trio is an effective, if manipulative piece, but the final salvation chorus doesn't really have enough musical substance to make it compelling.
But it's nice every now and again to dust it off.
--Thanks to mad musings of you for the link. Now if only my work firewall wouldn't block you :)
Faust is an interesting case. When I first started going to the opera around (ahem) 30 years ago, it was fairly ubiquitous. I saw it several times at NewYork City Opera and it was regularly in the Met repertoire. It is well known that it was the opera that opened the Met and for years that house was known as the Faustspielhaus.
But more than any other standard opera it seems to have fallen from favor. I did a quick search of the Met database over the past 50 or so years and if these performance totals are any indication (and I think it is) , it is startling. From 1950-60, 88 performances; 1960-70, 62 performances; 1970-80, 41 performances; 1980-90, 13 performances and 1990-2000, 20 performances, while during the same period Aida averaged about 100 performances or more, a decade.
I think this is mirrored in the lack of complete recordings. The arkivmusic.com database lists only 20, the majority of which are "live recordings". Of the studio efforts the pickings are slim.
Faust was maybe the 3rd or 4th opera recording I owned, in the NLA Columbia/Metropolitan Opera version with Eleanor Steber, Eugene Conley and Cesare Siepi (who so deserved a better and more complete recording than this). The performance is perfectly fine, though Conley is a respectable, but not exciting tenor. It is actually amazing to think that two of the major Fausts of the 40s and 50s at the Met, Björling and DiStefano, both of whom are extensively documented in other roles, never commercially recorded this part. Thankfully live versions are available. DiStefano's diminuendo on the high C in Salut! has to be heard to be believed and I prefer Bj¨rling's earlier broadcast with Kirsten to the later one with Söderström (he transposes the high C a full step here). My benchmark performances are of course the set of excerpts with Caruso and Journet and the earliest commercial recording with Vezzani (whose timbre I find so interesting) and Journet again. I never really warmed to the De Los Angeles/Gedda versions, primarily because of Christoff.
I like Faust, but when it comes to it, I'm more puzzled by its earlier prominence than its current neglect. It is a great role for an overpowering bass and with nice arias for the soprano, tenor and bass, but as a dramatic piece it falls fairly flat. For me the highlight is the church scene, if it is committedly done. The final trio is an effective, if manipulative piece, but the final salvation chorus doesn't really have enough musical substance to make it compelling.
But it's nice every now and again to dust it off.
--Thanks to mad musings of you for the link. Now if only my work firewall wouldn't block you :)
posted by Rich Russell at
1:41 AM
1 Comments:
My pleasure! I do get a little sweary sometimes...and I work somewhere that IT haven't the brains to understand what a firewall is!
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