Cheap Berlioz - La Damnation de Faust / Cambreling, Kasarova, Groves, White, Salzburger Festspiele (DVD) (Vesselina Kasarova) Price

First all the negative elements.

The stage contains a gigantic transparent cylinder in and around which most of the action takes place. The backdrop consists of three tiers of arches. The chorus is dressed throughout in loose fitting white outfits that make them look like bakers and they are forever carrying on their backs what looks like the old fashioned milk containers used on dairy farms. (They are supposed to be the holders of man's psyches, you learn if you read the notes.)

Faust is similarly dressed but little by little, he keeps replacing his garments with black pieces identical to Mephisto's. (The two sides of man's personality, you see.) Marguerite has to settle for the same black evening gown throughout. (She has always been devilish? With such symbolism, who can tell?)

The peasants who should be dancing on the green, according to what they themselves are singing, are wearing smoked glasses to see an eclipse of the sun, while later a small group is kicking around a soccer ball to show jollity. During the Hungarian March, we have the same whiteclad chorus forming a procession with those milk jugs, during the Ballet of the Sylphs, we have Mephisto slowly crossing the stage and not a dancer in sight, and during the Ballet of the Will-o'-the-Wisps we have those same jugs acting as flashlights but again no dancing.

The result of all this is that we lose any feeling that these are real people (even the Devil should come over as a personality and not a symbol), much to the detriment of the drama.

The subtitles often play free and loose with the French text, usually elaborating a simple French phrase into something more poetical, now and then introducing a slang word like "savvy" (for "style de savant"). And one has to wince when the gray haired Mephisto (Willard White, a black singer) iss described by the chorus as pale and red haired.

The opening and closing titles indicate that this video should be shown with letterbox formatting. Also, the booklet's numbering of the tracks is one less than your player will show on the readout.

Now for the good aspects.

Computer-generated images are often projected onto the cylinder to stunning visual effect. We actually see horses during the Ride to Hell sequence (although Faust and Mephisto remain stationary. Faust's fall into the abyss looks quite real, although I wonder what the audience saw from their seats. Marguerite's song about the King of Thule and his goblet seems to take place inside an immense goblet that dissolves at the end of the song, again to great effect.

The singing was first rate, if the acting was not. Paul Groves' voice was just right for both Faust's lyrical moments and his dramatic ones. Willard White was a very imposing looking Mephisto and managed to be appropriately mocking in his serenade. His voice was almost drowned out only in the Hell sequence in which the orchestra was too loud for a good balance. Vesselina Kasarova sang a sympathetic Marguerite and really tried acting during her two great solos, only to be defeated by having to sing from the cylinder. The close-ups unkindly accentuated the perspiration in which all three were bathed.

The singing of the chorus was mostly very good, considering they were not allowed to move while vocalizing, and only during the first part of the Easter Hymn were they almost inaudible. Sylvian Cambreling lead his Staatskapelle Berlin with energy and now and then with the delicate nuance that this score demands.

It is, after all, the only "Damnation" on video; but I hope some day for a more traditional treatment.

Enough Symbolism Already
I was eagerly looking forward to La Damnation de Faust recorded at the 1999 Salzberg Festival. All indications pointed to a rousing Berlioz event, and musically it was not disappointing at all. Regretably in this case the symbolism overrides the plot, and there is nothing left to appreciate but the music. People in white costumes, playing soccer? The same people moving some indiscript machine around the stage to represent the war machine in the "Hungarian March"? A bald red-headed Mephisto? No dancing in the ballets? In places I closed my eyes and just listened. A decade ago I saw a similar "Damnation of Faust" presented by a Philadelphia opera company, and it was just as mind numbing and illogical as this production. When the Faust story cannot stand on its own, without this constant re-interpretation it will cease to be a classic, and that will never happen. There's nothing wrong with symbolism, unless it gets in the way of the story. Why can't the story be "symbolic friendly" without jerking Faust out of the middle ages into some nebulous environment where it is impossible for the tale to unfolded as it was written? Berlioz never intended this version of Faust to be presented as a staged opera. On his first trip to London the empressario Julien, made an offer for him to convert it into an opera, but that fell through. He would have obviously changed some things had he done so. The technical problems presented by "La Damnation de Faust", especially the Ride to the Abyss make it very difficult to stage effectively, although the Salzberg production did a fair job technically, utilizing a large cylinder where some of the action took place. However, my suggestion is that until someone can do it right, leave the piece alone. The human mind is still the best stage for this remarkable work. The singing was very good, the orchestra played the piece the way Berlioz should be played, and the sound was excellent. And a big plus is the 5.1 Dolby Digital - that alone is worth the price of the DVD. My only quibble with the sound was in the Hungarian March where the bass drum representing distant cannon fire was barely audible. I rate this version 4 stars for the music and the sound. You might find the staging amusing; just don't let it distract you from the music.

Avoid this DVD is you like Berlioz
I recently bought this DVD and it is very disappointing in just about any way I can think of. Before I would have thought it impossible to make a boring DVD of Damnation but they did it. The singers are uninteresting and hammy, often looking into nothingness with vacant looks of ____ (insert shock, love, awe, horror, or embarassment). Average pitch and diction. The English subtitles are adequate. The tempi are all slower than normal, managing to lose all excitement. The opening scene through the march is leaden and the ride to hell ambles along at a walk. The live recording has all the technical warmth of an amateur performace recorded in a barn. The less said about the setting the better. The graphics and images have little resemblance to the music. Especially bad is the ride to hell. (and to hell it should go!) Repeated clumsy CGI of a horse and a piston. A horse and pistion when the Berlioz calls for bats, nightbirds, a hideous beast, skeletons, clouds, an army of demons and a rain of blood. Heady stuff but you get a horse and piston with Faust and Mephistofeles standing above the fray pointing at nothing.
Goodwill, here it comes.

The rattling sound from Montemart is Berlioz rolling over in his grave.