We’re continuing our summer tour of European opera houses on this week’s Sunday Opera (8/23 3:00 p.m.) with a trip to the Bavarian State Oper and their recent production of Charles Gounod’s 1859 grand opera, “Faust.” The libretto follows an aging scholar who trades his soul to the devil for youth and love. Rejuvenated, Faust seduces and abandons the innocent Marguerite, leading to a tragic spiral of murder, madness, and her ultimate redemption and salvation.
Despairing over his old age and unfulfilled life, the philosopher Faust (Jonathan Tetelman) prepares to drink poison. Hearing joyous village singing, he hesitates and calls upon the devil. Mephistopheles (Kyle Ketelsen) appears and offers youth and worldly pleasure in exchange for Faust's soul in the afterlife. After being shown a vision of the pure maiden Marguerite (Olga Kulchynska), Faust signs the pact.
At a town fair, Marguerite's brother Valentin (Florian Sempey)entrusts her safety to friends before heading off to war. Mephistopheles mocks the crowd, and Faust meets Marguerite briefly, instantly winning her heart.
With the devil's help and a gift of jewels, Faust successfully courts Marguerite outside her home. Though briefly conflicted, she surrenders to his love. After which, Faust abandons her.
Marguerite finds she is pregnant and, in disgrace, prays in church where Mephistopheles curses her. Valentin returns from war, challenges Faust to a duel, and is killed by Faust with the devil's assistance.
Driven mad by grief after drowning her illegitimate child, Marguerite is imprisoned. Faust and Mephistopheles break in to rescue her, but she refuses to escape with them. She calls upon heavenly grace, dying redeemed as angels carry her soul to heaven, while Faust and the devil are damned.
The cast also includes Thomas Mole as Wagner, Emily Sierra as Siebel, and Dshamilja Kaiser as Marthe. Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Bavarian State Orchestra and Chorus.
We’re changing the mood a bit after the opera (although there will be a bit of supernatural justice handed out) with a ballet by Swiss Composer Richard Flury. “The Magic Mirror” is a 1954 work that is a beautiful example of Flury’s love of music that embodied the ideals of late Romanticism.
The story is a simple one: A young wife convinces her aging husband to seek out medical help for his lumbago which is cured. The surgeon/alchemist also gifts the old man a magic mirror that allows him to see his wife who is having an affair with a student whom she convinces to try to attack a portrait of the old man as she believes in the old tales that it will kill the old man. The student tries three times, and after the third miss, he falls dead. The wife then hides the body in a large trunk. Her husband returns, accuses the wife in front of her friends, and opens the trunk which releases demons that drag the woman into a fiery pit.
This premier recording of the work is performed by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Paul Mann.
